Death of a Dragon Killer

And so we found ourselves face to face with Gruul. His cyclops features scanning the cave for our presence, he could not have failed to hear our progress down the tunnel to his lair and the screams of the dying ogres we met there; soon enough we faced each other down. As we weighed each other up we 25 brave and true against the might of one solitary monster we reminded ourselves that this creature kills Dragons for sport. We were here to show him that not only had we killed dragons, but taken on a God and won. Any bravado was soon extinguished as Gruul raised one mighty fist and sent it crashing into the cave floor. As the reverberations bounced around the room, small chunks of the ceiling began to fall around our heads, it seemed that even the cave itself was against us this fight. With final preparations made, the order to charge was given. With Gwythyr spearheading the attack and Rugan and Daxu just behind we poured into the cavern, spreading around the place so that we might minimise any area damage he could bring to bear. Within seconds of the fight beginning what we feared was proved to be true. Huge chunks of the cave ceiling rained down upon us, forcing us to constantly move for fear of being crushed by the huge boulders that cascaded down. The second thing that we noticed was every now and again he would briefly focus his attention on one of the other Warriors and deliver such a blow that the shock of the impact could be felt yards away; Rugan and Daxu were in for an encounter of pain and suffering. We continued to warily attack for a while, ready to react in a second should he do something unexpected when all of a sudden he leapt slightly into the air and drove his fist straight down into the ground. Those of us stood close to him were flung into the air and away. As soon as we hit the ground again, a strange malaise crept over the entire group. Our limbs grew heavy and difficult to move we slowed rapidly, becoming statue-like until in no more than a few seconds we stood there, unable to move. Fortunately as soon as this began to happen, I sensed a powerful magic may be at work and surrounded myself in shadow. As soon as I did this I had full control of my limbs once more and could move freely again. Casting quick glances around the cave it seemed that the rest of the Rogues had the same thoughts. What our cloak did not protect us from was what Gruul did next. Perhaps my colleagues had only been wrapped in stone rather than turned to it as after the rest of the unit had become immobile the skin of stone around them shattered into thousands of shards flying around in all directions. Like 25 living grenades anyone standing within 20 feet of another person was hit by razor sharp pieces of rock. Those unfortunate to be held too close to one another really took a beating, but fortunately we were all still standing.

Running back in to the fight, I and several of the other Officers noticed something. Something was definitely different about Gruul. Had he grown taller? Our worst fears were confirmed when Rugan took a slap that if he were not made of sterner stuff probably would have broken him in two. The race was now well and truly on we had to finish him before he could get to the size that would finish us and the order to unleash hell was given. All the fury of Covenant was brought to bear upon him as mysterious artifacts obtained in the depths of the strangest and most dangerous of places were used. Secret techniques reserved only for the most desperate of times were employed and we prayed to our Gods that it would be enough. I myself had already activated one of my trinkets, a curious counting device that enhanced my speed greatly for a short period of time, and had released a tide of adrenaline into my system when I felt a great rage upon me. The Unraveller had awoken from its slumber and added its strength to mine. A mere second after this a felt a charge go down both arms almost simultaneously as both maces powers also awoke to lend even more speed to me. Within a mere 2 seconds, my arms were a blur as I poured everything I possibly could into the hide of this beast. Of course all this added haste and rage do wonders for your fighting prowess, but on larger creatures it also tends to draw their attention. Only just in time did we see it as first my compatriot in the arts of stealth, Raath, managed to raise his sword in time to barely deflect a hefty blow, then your faithful narrator saw only just in time the blow aimed directly at him and barely managed to throw himself out of harms way. We deemed it prudent that the beast think we were gone and vanished momentarily in a flash of powder. We continued our attack, dancing our way between the cave ins and praying that he did not notice us once more.

Thinking we had his abilities figured we continued for a short while until a strange reverberating sound began to echo around the room. It got louder and more painful until our casters could not concentrate on their spells. In a final last ditch attempt the healers threw all the timed healing spells they could at Gwythyr in the hope that they would keep him alive long enough for the effects to subside. It worked, but only just.

Again Gruul leapt into the air and again we were thrown back, though not as much as before because at least we knew what he was up to. As we fell back to earth, I noticed several people standing on rocks at the edge of the cave. They hadn't moved! Perhaps this was the key to restoring some order to an already chaotic fight? Again as I felt the clutches of the stone upon me I became one with the shadows and managed to find a space where there was nobody within many yards of me. As the crack of the exploding rocks filled the chamber I found myself unscathed and once more charged in to do combat with a much larger beast than the one we first attacked. Time was growing short for us to end this and again we did everything we could to end the struggle. For long minutes the battle raged as the cave ins became more frequent and the rocks much larger. Again Gruul grew to an even bigger size and again the created the reverberation that made spellcasting impossible. Eventually we saw in him that he was readying for another ground slam and in that instant all but a few ran to the rocks around the edge of the room. Those that made it in time were spared being hurled through the air and had more control over where they could go to avoid the deadly shower of sharp rocks that was about to rain down upon us. Once more we managed to get to places where we would take the minimum of damage and again we ran back in to carry on the fight.

Time was running short now. The blows that were raining down on Gwythyr were beginning to take their toll. Our healers were starting to tire also and we did not think we could keep it up for much longer. We estimated that we had a minute, maybe 90 seconds at most before people started dying, but we also noticed that Gruul for all his power and size was looking decidedly worse for wear; we went for it again. Using anything that had recharged its power from previously, we coaxed leaden arms into swinging that little bit harder. Everything that we had left was thrown at him in grim determination that he would fall before we did, after were we not the ones who had just cleared out Karazhan of the demon taint? We had slain not one but 2 Dragons and we had already dispatched Maulgar and his cohorts. In the furious effort to end his miserable existence, some casualties were inevitable. A few casters were caught unaware by a large rockfall, such was their concentration on the job in hand. I again was subjected to one of his vicious strikes but was too tired to get out of the way in time. His fist slammed into me, knocking the fight right out of me and left me, and several others, in a crumpled heap by his feet. It was a close run thing as we knew that any minute he could again leap into the air and cause us all to go flying back across the cave. In 30 seconds we knew that one way or another this fight would be over. In a last desperation move, Gruul did indeed leap and once more people were scattered to the corners of the room. This time we knew it would be the end and people were bunched up in ways that meant no one would be safe from the shredding that would take place when the shattering occurred. As people stood motionless, making peace with their Gods they awaited their fate...and waited and waited some more. With a groan that shook the cavern Gruul's legs gave way underneath him and sent him crashing to the ground. Whilst people were waiting for the end it seemed that the amassed curses, continuous spells and poisons did the job for us. All it took to push him over the edge was a Pyroblast from a diminutive Mage, Melyanna to finish the job. We were victorious but not without a price. Half the group lay dead or dying and the other half were frozen in stone, a precarious situation indeed if nothing happened soon. Fortunately for us the paralysation did not last forever and soon those surviving Priests, Paladins et al were bringing the souls of the fallen back to their mortal shells.

The mountains of Blade's Edge are a safer place once more, I hear there's a demon in Hellfire Citadel that threatens the air. Some demon called Magtheradon apparently, perhaps we'll go pay him a visit.

Death to the Servers!

I sit here, several hours after maintenance was due to end to find I cannot feed my addiction to my drug of choice. Server instability is the proffered excuse, but I claim different. They've gone off down the pub and forgotten to switch the buggers back on, that's what's really happened. They'll come back at about 3pm stinking of Kronenburg 1664 and realise that they've not plugged the servers back in from when the cleaner unplugged them to do the weekly hoover.

I defy anyone to prove me wrong!

No Progress...Denied!

Typical, you spend all day looking forward to spanking a brand new encounter in the game and what happens? Along comes a bug that messes everything up. It seems that Covenant were foiled by a very rare bug in the Raid ID that meant that only one or two people were saved to the correct instance after downing Maulgar. Those who weren't there could also get in, but more that half of the raid (myself included) either went into a dungeon with full respawn (including Maulgar) or were told that we weren't saved to the in instance and got booted. After a fruitless hour long wait for a fable GM response we gave up and did other things.

So the Curse of Covenant continues, with nefarious and eldritch powers giving the bosses another respite. Every single time we have faced off against the main boss of a place this has happened. Hakkar in ZG, Ragnaros in MC, Nefarion in BWL and Ossirian in AQ20 all glitched in some way or the server threw a wobbler making attempts impossible. Now Gruul has obviously joined the cartel and is mocking us from the other side of the maintenance break; I swear they do it on purpose.

Patch of the Day

Now that patch day is upon us, we finally get the rest of the content we were supposed to get in January, plus a few extra tweaks to the game in general. I am sitting here thinking happy thoughts at all the Karazhan gear I have that is going to be improved and how much more damage I'm going to be able to do with that and the changes to glancing blows AND the fact that I'm going to get Imp. Sap for free now and all the other gubbins...then I realise one thing. It's a Wednesday...23rd May...I'm sure that there's something else going on tonight...something more important than squeezing out a couple of extra DPS (if such a thing is possible). Yes folks the patch can wait until later for me, I'll be at home but my heart with be in Athens. Here's looking at number 6 :)

When you walk through a storm,
Hold you head up high,
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm,
There's a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of the lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone.

This is Covenant!

And so it was that last night found us in the murky depths of Gruul the Drakonkiller's lair. For several weeks now we had been slowly building up our assaults, though disappointing to say, with mixed results. But this time we were better prepared, our recruitment drive had swelled the ranks of those willing to put their lives on the line in the pursuit of righteous judgement. Guild craftsmen had worked overtime in creating those items that could tip the balance of power in our favour; we prayed that it would be enough. Hungry for the victory that had eluded us for so long, we set out to bring the pain.

After summarily dispatching Maulgar's meagre defences, we quickly set up in our attack formation. Against us stood 5 Ogres, all different and equally dangerous in their own ways. Aside from the High King himself stood Krosh Firehand, a particularly angry mage, Olm the Summoner, master of the dark arts, Blindeye the Seer, a fanatical priest, and Kiggler the Crazed, a shaman whose grasp on reality seemed to have slipped long ago.

At the appointed hour Asahina, decked out in equipment that boosted her health far beyond the norm called our army into action. A second before Asahina unleashed a burning frenzy at Firehand, Hunters littered around the room fired a salvo of misdirecting arrows, causing the remainder of the Ogres to run at our Warriors and Druids. As the melee of Ogres and attackers was pulled throughout the cavern we set about our first target. With a snarl of fury to let the others know he was ready, Throndil let the rest of us know he had Blindeye firmly under control. Falling upon him like a pack of wild Banshees, myself and my fellow Rogues leapt from the shadows at his back and attempted to see what his insides looked like. Hunters unleashed volley after volley of arrows, each one deadly accurate and each one aimed to cause maximum damage. It was quickly clear that our enraged assault was having the desired effect as very quickly the Seer decided that healing himself would be prudent. What he didn't bargain on was 3 hyped up Rogues all deciding to kick him in various painful spots to interrupt his casting. With a Warlock's Curse of Tongues causing him to fumble over every word of his incantation, he stood no chance of healing. Soon resorting to more desperate measures, he shielded himself in an attempt to heal all his comrades at arms. Again with the curse slowing him, his shield was crushed within a mere few seconds and his spell was stopped by a timely counterspell from one of the Mages on hand. In the end there could be only one outcome. Blindeye the Seer was the first to fall and without a healer we just levelled the playing field.

Our second objective was Ohm the Summoner. Whilst the battle with Blindeye had been raging, Tinchena had been keeping herself busy. Not only was she supplying curses to other targets, but she was also keeping the Summoner's pets under control. Turning them against him to not only cause even more damage but to help turn aside some of his magical abilities, Ohm suffered the same fate as his Priestly counterpart. Try as he might to damage our efforts, without healing he quickly succumbed to the combined weight of the extra attackers from Blindeye. Objective 2 was completed with a minimum of fuss. We were still 25 strong and they had lost 40% of their forces.

Objective 3 required a different tactic to the previous. With his ability to knock back anyone close to him, we had given the task of keeping Kiggler the Crazed occupied to 2 Hunters, Ienina and Ramocheese. Decked out in Nature resistant clothing, they squared off at 30 paces and hurled arrow after arrow, receiving bolts of lightning in return. By the time the rest of the assault force brought their arms to bears on Kiggler, he was half dead already, a hundred or more arrows turning him into a ghastly, upright porcupine. With the added salvo from the rest of us, his defiance ended in a lethal crossfire that literally tore him to shreds. 0-3 to the away team and we hadn't even broken for oranges yet.

Other than Maulgar himself, this just left Krosh Firehand to defeat and again due to his far reaching blast waves we had to attack at range for fear of a quickly but extremely painful fiery end. Again due to the time that had passed since the opening salvo from Asahina, Krosh was in a fairly bad state, but we had no room in our minds for sympathy. For too long we had been beaten back by this ferocious follower of the flame and we wanted revenge. Again the cave momentarily darkened as the first volley blotted out what little light there was and a cry of surprise and pain was heard when it met its target. A few more salvos and the fight was done. There was but one opponent remaining and we were still 25 strong.

It is at this point that I must mention our brave Warriors and the efforts that they put into keeping their targets under control. High praise indeed must go to Gwythyr who from the very beginning stood bravely against the unending assault of Maulgar without fear or doubt. For some moments the battle had raged across the cavern and with no one to turn to for aid, Gwyth stood in front of the mountain...and made the mountain blink first. Of course this also would not be possible without the aid of those healers who stood to one side constantly raining down a barrage of divine magic to close the wounds that would ordinarily cut a person in two, praying that the next heal would arrive in time to save Gwythyr's life. Though exhausted the Priests were forced onto more and more with a ready supply of Innervates.

Our time had come. For weeks we Officers had envisioned this moment; High King Maulgar alone against 25 highly motivated and highly dangerous individuals. With a cry that would unnerve Illidan himself we ran forward, united in the knowledge that our destiny laid in our own hands. For some moments we attacked like a pack of wild dogs heaping pain and misery upon his ugly, deformed head. His wild spinning attacks were something we were aware of though and at the first sign of him winding up, we all ran out of his range. Two or three times this was accomplished until he managed to maneuver himself slightly and in the blink of an eye myself and my two fellow Rogues were crushed by a single swipe that put us into a world of hurt. By this time Maulgar had got himself into somewhat of a state and started to charge into the remainder of our forces. Though gravely wounded and fighting to remain awake through the pain, I could just make out several heavily armoured shaped darting in and out, taunting Maulgar, forcing him to turn his attention away from the group. Though he managed to put poor Melyanna down not once but twice in the ensuing melee, there was always a friendly Druid on hand to bring the broken Gnome back into the fight. As the battle raged and Maulgar sought to cause more devastation and hopefully snatch victory from our grasp.

As I slipped in and out of consciousness the battle raged for what seemed like days. For every blow that landed on a Warrior, a Priest healed it. For every blow we landed on him, it seemed to do little damage. But little things added together soon become small and small become large. In the war of attrition we were slowly beating him back. Piece by piece High King Maulgar's health was robbed from him as the dedicated assault continued unabated. Maulgar threw another whirlwind attack in an attempt to break our resolve, but like a parting of the waves the remainder of the group moved aside and let him through. Once over the waves came crashing back down upon him and as the tide erodes the shore, so did we chip away at his health; there could be only one outcome.

Not since the days when Covenant first went against the might of Razorgore in Blackwing Lair had a battle stymied us for so long, pushed us to the limit of our reserves and threatened the foundation of our brotherhood. But in one almighty grinding of gears the Juggernaut that is Covenant had wrenched itself free of the mire. Once more Covenant stands ready to take on everything that this land can throw at us. Again we can stand shoulder to shoulder, staring into Death's grinning face...and grin back.

We are Covenant and we are one.

On the Current State of Play

It's high time that I grace these hallowed pages once more with my munificence, truth be told I've been struggling mightily for something to say.

As our corpulent übermenschlich, Krinthor stated in his previous post progress has begun to speed up again; Prince Melchazzar has now bent his knee in fear of our mighty war machine. Illhoof and the rest of his cohorts have also tasted our steel and though we have been temporarily beaten back, it is only a matter of time before they fall. Even Gruul's Lair has felt our presence and whilst the final key to unlocking victory dangles tantalisingly out of our grasp, we make steady progress with each attempt on the place.

We've even managed to squeeze some new blood out of the old rickety server that is Khadgar. We welcome back to the fold Delafunk and the Space Goat, Donale, to the Covenant bosom. Also joining are Raath and Mel who came through their heroic trials with no problems; let's hope that their trial period is as fruitful for them.

That's not all the recruitment we are doing however, oh no! More trial runs are planned for the next few days and now that I'm in charge of this whole recruitment malarky (pay rise in the offing then Krin?) I hope to be speaking to many, many new people who want to join us.

Space filler:

Because I have nothing further to add to this post (see, still nothing to talk about) here are some funnehs.

http://http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.html You'll be wanting pages 252-266
http://www.lfgcomic.com/ If you've not already read this, WHY NOT DAMMIT??!?

Progress, progress, progress!

Yes, Aran has died and finally the wheels of the Covenant War Machine have begun to turn once more.

Recruitment is open, the guild is a thriving community once more, and we have begun to sweep aside the obstacles which once stood immoveable before us. Not only have we now defeated Aran, but last Kz reset, we swept him aside in a single attempt, the next day we did the same thing with the Prince.

Loot is flying, morale is high, and the world has been set to rights as I have finally returned to my shadowy former self, and Harddrinker is once again a healing tree.

Lets keep it up guys, and soon no one who opposes us shall do so and survive!

Krinthor.

The shade of aran....

Well after what seemed likes years of wipes on Nielas Aran we finally got him last night! Was a great raid, we where quick on getting to him and when we did we gave it our best shot, getting him down to -40% on all trys. But we did get wiped by one of out hunter lovely snake's.

But as it came round to repop time we had our best try yet. With the thought of us having to clear all that trash again the raid sprang into action and kicked the living poop out of the shade. The positioning of the raid was perfect, no one ran into the blizzard nor was flame wreath triggerd.

So well done that the raiders and ofc to the guild.

Now the real question is...who is next?

Rugan.

The Brick Wall

Apologies for the temporary absence, mainly due to the fact that I've had sod all to talk about. Not sure whether I do here either, I'll just go with the stream of consciousness for a bit and see where it takes me.

And so another reset comes and goes and again the Shade of Aran stands mocking us at the end. Valiant efforts were made and many repair bills were incurred over the last few days to try and put an end to his taunting of us. The numbers were bandied around for a while; 40%, 18%, 7%...surely he would fall this time? No, fecker was still standing there at the end of it. The other group fared no better, though with a lack of Warlocks to banish a couple of his adds they certainly had a tougher time of it.

http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=268897512&sid=1

It seems that we are not alone however. This is a thread started by Bloodlust Enthroned, a fellow Khadgarian raiding guild a bit further down the line than us. Seems that we are all having the same problems then, but to what can we ascribe the reason for this?

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/misc/wowinsider/wowi12/magtheridon.html

From Blizzard's very own pages comes a potential answer. Whilst they speak of Magtheridon and the 25 man content in general, this also applies to the 10 man raids we currently spend our waking life on. Blizzard have attempted to balance tactics (a la 40 man) with tightly scripted elements that force us to react in a certain way or die (Arcane Wreath or annoying Blizzard thing that covers half the room) and the element of chance (who Moroes garottes). I can see how they thought that the element of chance will make things more "exciting", meaning that people have to react fast to keep on track; it's when the random element causes a wipe through nobodies fault that can cause demoralisation. Perhaps it's this randomness that has been introduced into the raid aspect that has caused so many guilds to explode? In their rigid hardcore regime where everyone had to do exactly as they are told at all times, perhaps they were too inflexible to deal with the randomness of the new encounters and simply withered away.

So what does this have to do with us I hear you cry? Well I'd like to think that Covenant can step forward and fill the breach that these other guilds have left. Our casually hardcore (hardly casualcore?) approach means that we (hopefully) have the discipline to succeed at the scripted parts of the fights, yet adaptable enough that the element of chance is minimised (Nefarian anyone?) When we truely master ourselves in this way we will progress to the next level.

It is almost a shame that the Easter break falls upon us now, just when Aran looked like he was going to cough up the goods; bring him down and we can make a serious assault on the remaining bosses. Alas it was not meant to be and with the reset comes a week's break from concentrated raiding (though I'm sure there will be enough people around to get some done). Instead as a kind of last charge at glory, we return to the scene of previous hilarity, Gruul's Lair. Early on we visited there to get a feel for the place. The only thing we truely felt was the pointy bit of their weapons as we were routed on more than one occasion. But now there is a "nerf" in place (apparently you can now only call yourself truely 1337 if you managed to down the place pre-nerf day) and we have better gear and more practise at raiding once more (2 month layoff certainly rusts the reflexes somewhat) we get to go face the challenge once more. Who knows, perhaps we'll survive long enough to get a few of them down this time?

On a Day Like This

Today, Covenant HQ has been a hive of activity. Like the busy little bees we are, many discussions have been taking place (Oh Noes! Teh Hidden Agenda!!!1!!©) about what to do with our raid progress. It seems that we have stalled somewhat at the place where if we can just get passed, we can rapidly improve our progress. It seems that the dashboard of the Covenant Juggernaut has developed a bit of a rattle and whilst it's not a major problem, sometimes when you're behind the wheel, damn it can be annoying.

So to make sure that we don't get too bogged down in it, there will be some minor retuning to the way things work. We're going to bust our balls to get everything in place so that we can walk into Karazhan and the bosses will cough up their lewtz rather than making us fight for it. Details are still being hammered out and to be honest, there won't be much difference to the way we do things now but we hope that the little tweaks we implement will make us the lean, mean ganking machine once more.

Keep an eye on the forums, details will follow.

The Day Today

Today I wished to go off one about anything that may have piqued my interest on the warcraft forums, something that sparked debate or gave some meaningful insight into the world in which we play. Just goes to show what you get for reading the official forums I guess. Aside from the usual complaints over how everyone has it so bad against other classes (ZOMG! Nref CloS, we Warlocks have to think!) there was absolutely nothing worth reading or discussing. "I know" I thought, "I'll check our 'Mercan friends. Surely they'll have something to say". They did...exactly the same shite as our European brethren.

Still as they say, no news is good news...unless you're a Warlock

I remember when all this was fields...

So it came to pass that after last night's enjoyable but also excruciatingly annoying raid where bad guys just refused to play fair, several of our lot managed to do a run through Shattered Halls to unwind. Now having never been there before, I was filled with a slight sense of "This is going to get expensive" because I remember the first time a group went into there, I was listening to the conversation over Vent and thinking "Ouch!". For several hours we sat in silence as they tried to figure out each encounter, wondering if they could do it this time. After they emerged sweaty and beaten, it was commented on that people would need much better gear to be able to do well there.

Fast forward 2 months and it's my turn. Having just handed over 19g in repairs after Karazhan, I didn't fancy having to do the same here, but on we went. It was with a sense of slight disappointment when we found that the place seemed somewhat friendlier. Groups that had previously given the first group the kind of beatdown reserved for red-headed stepchildren were falling over before our onslaught. In fact there was only one hairy moment and that was right at the end with the final boss and his whirlwindy, spinny assault of death. He fell meekly on the second attempt.

It set me to thinking about all the other places that as a guild we used to go to and thought they were hard. Encounters waged and lost because the target just seemed to hard at the time. Fast forward a short while, you maybe replace one or two items of gear, respec slightly to eke out a bit more healing or DPS and all of a sudden that same mob is a pussycat. Pre TBC it was the Baron Rivendare that caused problems, but get a few pieces of your dungeon set and a slightly better weapon perhaps and he goes down faster than a 2 dollar whore.

I guess that this really links back to my opening statement about Karazhan and the question should therefore be this: When the fuck will certain bosses become easy? I'm all for a long, hard fight with a mob always being right on the ragged edge. When you down them for that first time, there's the sense of elation (right up until the point you find the boss has dropped bloody dr00d gear again) and accomplishment. Now it's not so much accomplishment, more relief. I find that there are too many incalculable elements to these fights, it's not a case of tactics working or not working, you have to rely on random elements. Take Moroes for instance; his Garrote is nasty and spells certain doom if you can't get rid of it. Bubbles and Stoneskin work, but one of those relies on you choosing the correct race 70 levels ago. Noone is going to think "Oh yes the Moroes fight, I shall choose a Dwarf!". The other part is reliant on Paladin bubbles, which can only be used every few minutes, so basically you might get one or two off if you're lucky. Now if you are incredibly lucky, he'll go for these people first so by the time that the Garrote does start sticking, he'll be almost dead anyway. If he goes for myself though for instance, then that's 5 minutes of one of the healers having to keep an eye on me for the entire fight and pour much mana into keeping me alive. Of course there's always his 4 adds to consider and if one of those gets loose then it can cause havoc. Or if Moroes happens to stun the MT and decides to run off and gank one of the healers who also happen to be keeping one of the adds shackled...the list could go on.

It could just be that we aren't good enough for the encounter yet, but then what of the Maiden or Romeo and Juliet in the Opera event? Couple of her bolts at the same person within a second or two and our most promising attempt of the event falls down in tatters.

Scripted fights are supposed to be challenging, but with the right tactics should be beatable more times than not. These new fights are too unpredictable and down to random factors we can't control.

U.I.? Oh, do I ever

I have a new, not-so-secret addiction to modifying my UI. I've been flicking, moving, prodding, downloading and installing addons for the last month and while I may feel satisfied with it for a day or two, I soon start tweaking it again.

There are so much information I need and so much information that's nice to have. Do I really need to see each individual raid member or can I get away with a raid wide overview? I know all my key-bindings by heart, so I don't really need to see my buttons, but I like the visual feedback. Can I do something pretty with that black bar that Aperture creates at the bottom of my screen? Should I make nicer unit frames? Oh, the possibilities are endless!

More fun than you can shake a blunt instrument at

There I was, with some Primal Fire and Earth burning large holes in my pockets and several interesting stack of metals. Curious as I was, I set about cobbling together something that I could use. Well bugger me sideways with a pitchfork if I didn't go and make this. Now it just so happened that I had kept a mace from an earlier quest for just such an eventuality so I decided to put it to good use. Coughing up 15 of my hard earned gold, I respecced for maces and I can honestly say I've not had so much fun with both hands still on the keyboard. With the Haste aspect proccing regularly and SnD up, I was hitting as fast as I did with the daggers for silly amounts of damage, regular stuns just made it all the more fun.

Once my mace skill was maxed, I did a run through Old Hillsbrad to help out some people to get to BM for attunement. Whilst laughing maniacally at the insane damage I was putting out, I happened to notice that several procs had triggered at once. Rage of the Unraveller, Unleashed Fury (yay for Shammies), SnD and Haste all combined at once (2200+AP and 1.45/1.08 attack speed, RAWR!). For 10 seconds of pure, unbridled killing machine, something that I had not experienced on my character before. Needless to say, I had to go lie down in a darkned corner for a few moments afterwards.

I discovered something about my character last night; for 60 levels I had remained the same spec (with only a few minor tweaks along the way) and after a couple of hours last night with this new spec I was left with a smile on my face. Dagger spec was fun and backstabbing for 2k+ always made me grin, but the pure savagery I unleashed last night with my new toys left me grinning from ear to ear.

So guys, if you are struggling to find a reason to play your favourite toon, try a respec; you never know it might just be the thing that you are looking for.

Normality resumes

So it was then that the festivities of this last weekend drew to a close. The fearless band of intrepid imbibers have drained the EU surplus lager lake dry and must now wait for it to refill before meeting once more. Even though I "see" these people day after day in game, there's nothing that can replace meeting in person, having more drink than your Doctor would reccommend as being healthy and talking until 6 in the morning about absolutely anything that pops into your head. Then when it was time to go our separate ways, I went home a happy person once more.

As fearful of the possibility that I may have had to lead a raid was, it could not diminish the feeling that I was in the right place. I will admit that for a while I have been evaluating whether this game was for me anymore, but after getting 10 like minded individuals to go through Karazhan with once more and taking the Maiden and the beast boss down with a minimum of effort, I was still happy (though this may have had more to do with Rugan turning up and taking over).

I'd like to end now as I can see that several of you have tears in your eyes (whether from being moved by this or trying to refrain from vomiting remains to be seen) by saying that it's not the game that is special, it's the people you play the game with that make it special (or in certain cases speshul).

OK, done with the mushy stuff now. To bring levels of testosterone back to the accepted standards, I'd like to share a picture with you of a fellow lady bloggers furry kebab...




I have nothing further to add...

What todo!

Well i guess it that time of the month again for me, to start thinking of what todo with my life. I get like this once or twice every month where i start to get my self down about my current status in life. A few month's ago i was starting to get things sorted, getting my confidence back (mainly due to the guild, mainly down to you guys :) but then something very big happend in my life, so then whack, im back down to stage one again. Doubting my self and what not.
But I like to think that im getting my self confidence back up again (this time i hope it lasts.) So the real question that im racking my head over is: What shall i do with my life, I know i want to go back to colledge but i had a bad experiance there (which was mainly my falt) so im a bit nervous about going. Or should i try a home study course and do it in my own time... this is what keeps me up a night
Well at least ATM i have my good friends around me to help and the guild when i want to get away from it all, once again thanks :)

*venting completed*

Rugan

Yay! for weekend shennanigans

As I sit here at my office desk, procrastinating away the final few hours before the door to my cage is unlocked and I can leap unbound into the streets once more; my thoughts turn briefly to this evening's activities. A gathering of sorts is taking place in the deepest, darkest recesses of Casa del Covenant. At this meeting, 5 officers will be planning things of utmost importance, the very balance of things will be at stake. For as long as 30 minutes Krinthor, Diani, Asahina, Rugan and myself will struggle with a question so fundamentally earth shattering that we shall not rest until it is resolved. In a bid to relieve some of that very burden we reluctantly carry, I will share this dilemma with you. I just pray that you are prepared for what I am about to share...


...What booze are we getting tonight and how many cases?


Yes my friends, there is a meeting of like-minded individuals tonight, all dedicated to the pursuit of a new liver.
This does of course mean that there will be a lack of managerial support tonight but Ienina, Renaud and all the others will be there to make sure things run smoothly. We may briefly pop on from time to time over the weekend, but we also may be lying in a self induced, alcoholic poisoning stupor. Just remember to play nice but if you can't do this, make sure that they can't find the body.

Other news:

Also: Please to sign up for raids and ensure that if you sign up, you're around at start time, even if you are on standby. You never know we may need you to step in anyway.

Sodding systems

At work, 2 men down, so just me and the boss, hes fucking off doing other things all day so just me doing the job of 4 men, and its getting worse. A shitstorms brewing cos our main system has so many bugs and flaws that it actually doesnt work, and the guy that runs it never told us how much compensating for it he did. *EDIT* Oh, and all the procedures he wrote to do it are all bollocks and don't work

So here I am, running the show, with a system that doesnt work, it was fun in a omfg I'm so fucking this up kinda way the first few days, but now I'm having to deal with the shitstorm that is Sovman (the systems name) coming and biting me in the ass, and I have never felt so drained

Still, looking forward to the weekend, its Miths Bday party, and he and I shall be seeing if we can beat our 3 beer crates between us record

And for those that have been checking the forums and following the recruitment thread and its drama, I have only one thing to say to Blip (the guy who has been posting on his alt called idontcare), Are you still that bitter that someone else was promoted to officer instead of you? Or are you perhaps unhappy I called you on you "I left for many reasons, I'm not saying what they are, but you should all leave too and come join re-birth cos they are big reasons" and kept calling you on it till you ended up stooping to calling me names in an attempt to win.

Anyway, grats to everyone in covenant for making such good progress in karazhan last week, by the time I get back froms miths bday, I expect to see nightbanes head in the post :P. But stuffed though, I dont want it leaking all over :S

Anger...rising!

Current mood: Unhappy camper

I sit here behind this PC to play a game that I've enjoyed for over a year now. Why do some people have to try and ruin it for me? Sure people fall out from time to time, but aren't we adult enough to put it behind us and move on? It seems that all certain people want to do is make things as hard as they possibly can for you to carry on enjoying things. What do they get out of it I wonder? Some insignificant satisfaction that they've caused upset in a group of friends by blatantly betraying our trust and then lying to others about things that most certainly didn't happen? Well if that is the case, then I hope that they are happy in their narrow minded self.

If those who are responsible ever find themselves on these pages, I have but one thing to say; fuck off and die in a fire...

Sometimes I wonder.

Sometimes I find myself wondering why it is I play World of Warcraft, or the role of guildmaster in Covenant. I have been in Covenant since it came into being a year and a half or so ago, and was an officer to begin with and now GM. I put a lot of my spare time and effort into running the guild, organising raids, helping with groups, running instances, or just talking to my friends and having a good time. I speak of course not just of myself, but of all of our officers, who all contribute lots of their free time to the guild and to the game as a whole.

Most of the time I love WoW, I have great fun chatting with people, meeting new friends, and playing the game, only recently I rediscovered the joys of healing with my priest, who has been shadow specc for the last 6 months, and have had endless fun, and wipes (apologies to everyone involved) relearning how to heal.

Then every once in a while someone will come along who makes me woner if it is all worth while, someone who no matter what you say or do, or how hard you try to help them, or make them feel at home, will find away to accuse people of something, or to see anger or hatred where none exists, or who will go out of their way to make those around them feel bad because they get some small piece of satisfaction from doing so. thankfully these occasions are rare, but it always makes me think "what's the point?" why should I bother trying to run raids and instances, talk to people who come to me for help, or make the effort to make as many people as I can happy and have fun in the game, when there is always someone willing to come along and do their best to undo it all?

Let me give you an example:

Many people have asked me recently why Lovestar left the guild, and in each case I have tried to explain as best I can why I feel it happened, as I was not online when it actually occurred. So here's the way I saw it:

Lovestar joined us a couple of weeks back and was immediately accepted into the guild, she talked to us on vent laughed and joked with us in guild chat, and generally made herself at home, I doubt anyone would have said a bad word about her. Whilst on Ventrilo one day talking, an ex-guild member logged on to talk to me, as I hadn't spoken to him in a while. He made a rude comment about her, having only heard her voice and she was very upset about it. I banned that ex-guild member from vent shortly afterwards and removed his forum priviledges. Actions I felt would ensure that the situation could not arise again. I later learned Lovestar was still unhappy about what happened, so I made the effort to talk to her again at some length, explaining what I had done and why, that I and the guild did not find those comments to be fair or appropriate and that it shouldn't happen again. I am assured everything is ok now, and that the problem is over. Fine...works for me.

A few days later, Asahina and I are sitting on vent at gone midnight (something officers often do, to ensure raids have gone smoothly and discuss guild issues), fiddling about with raid composition, Moving people into and out of raids, deciding on a good raid balance, and doing our best to include people who have missed previous raids. We moved Lovestar into the raid at one point, and then out again, as we realised Sajuuk had signed up to, and as yet hadn't been to any raids, whereas Lovestar had been to the last few. I also moved Arwan into a raid, then removed him so Haggy could attend (for the same reason). the next morning I was contacted by a couple of guildies telling me Lovestar was upset, I spoke to her, and discovered it was because she happened to be on the raid page at the time we moved her into the raid, and wasn't happy at being moved out again. I explained to her, dear readers, as I have just done to you, that this was part of balancing raids, and she had been skipped over for this one raid to allow someone else in who hadn't yet been to any. Again after a long discussion she seemed to accept what I was saying and so I logged off for lunch.

When I returned in the evening, I discovered Love had g-quit without a word to anyone, not even a goodbye to the guild of whom she had already become a part, and logged out. I assumed from talking to her, reading her Blog and hearing what other people had to say, that she had felt things were too much, and that she wanted to get away from wow and look more to her real life. It seems I was mistaken, I discovered today in a recruitment post by Mith, that Lovestar had replied suggesting there was more than met the eye to her leaving and that something more sinister was at work. This, quite frankly is utter nonesense. Infact I am sickened to the bone both by her attitude and what she said in her post. This guild has done nothing but its best for her, getting her equipped and including her in raids, all of us making her, as with every new member, feel as welcome as we can. There was no sinister undercurrent or hidden agenda, there was only a stark reality:

Lovestar people liked you, and they wanted to include you in their guild and in our raids. For whatever emotional reason, you found a way to sabotage every offort we made to help you with issues and to see secret agendas and attacks on your character where none existed. You pushed away every offer of help, and refused to take on board anything we said to you, and instead fixated on your own fantasy about people hating you, and the world being out to get you. None of which is true. I hope you go away from your experience with us, and take on board the fact that you need to seek professional help to deal with whatever issues you have, and whatever events underlie them. From what I have seen you are a good person whos whole outlook on the world has been badly distorted by events which are now long in the past. Whatever reason you feel you left, and whatever hidden agendas you think you saw, and whichever guildmembers you think secretly hated you or wanted to do you harm makes no difference, because the reality is you are simply wrong.

Now, had Lovestar just left, I would have been dissappointed that we couldn't make things more comfortable for her, and kept her as a member of the guild. But that isn't what she did, she felt it necessary to go onto a world forum, and in a thread totally unrelated to her leaving, post suggesting that we had all done something wrong to her, and that, was simply not true. It is these people who find it necessary to lash out at everyone because they are feeling low, who make me wonder wether its all worth while trying. If you are going down, don't try to drag as many people as you can down with you, it only reflects badly on you as a person and upsets those who are meant to be your friends.

Now having said all this, there are other times when I see things which make me remember how much I love playing WoW with my friends, and how sometimes its all worthwhile, like watching the guild pull together at all sorts of unholy hours to get Shillen his Kara key, or seeing people zipping about all over the game world farming bizarre materials so we can make res sets for boss encounters, or equip new guildies who could use an upgrade. These things are what make playing WoW worthwhile and fun, and the reason that despite those who would do their best to make things unpleasant, I keep coming back to play with my friends in Covenant.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Yesterday was a mixed bag for me. Several high points included running around like a headless chicken, trying to dodge all manner of nastiness from the Shade of Aran and the other group taking down the chess event. Whilst Aran may still be standing the fight was a lot of fun and I can honestly say I got the feeling back which has been missing somewhat in the game in recent weeks.

Unfortunately it was a sad day for the guild as well. Losing valued friends and members of the guild is never a pleasant thing, but Swampy has purchased himself a lifetime subscription to a new MMO called "Real Life". Apparently his character is a level 5 dad at the moment, but he hopes to reach epic status soon. Good luck mate, keep in touch.

Also leaving the fold was one of our newer members, Lovestar. It seems that we were her last chance to find some happiness in the game, it's just a shame that we couldn't give her what she wanted. Goodbye Lovestar, it was short but sweet.

On an entirely unrelated note (and indeed the final part of the title of this post) it's my birthday today and so I ask only this of you:

GIEF CAEK!!!

Thank you.

Get off my land

Is it just me or has the need for farming exploded with TBC? Every single tailoring recipe I have seems to need a bunch of primals, which again need 10 motes of something-or-another. And when I've finally made them, or got a nice little epic drop from Karazhan, they're marginally better than the blues I got at level 62. I'm guessing we'll see an across the board buff on the Karazhan stuff, so I recommend holding on to your unwanted epics instead of DEing or selling them.

We'd better hope for a buff, because We'll need that to get Gruul or Magtheridon down. At the moment, they're a consumables feast out of this world. Rumour has it they'll be nerfed though, so we can only hope. I know I don't have time to farm for the require pots. Hell, this week I've logged on, entered Karazhan, finished Karazhan, portaled to IF, repaired, logged off. Going to have to try to find some time this weekend to fight other players for fire elementals in Nagrand!

Random Ramblings

Well, I've tinkered around with the site and settings somewhat. Email details should be safe from bots now as I've linked the site to spam poison. Take that nasty capitalist pig-dogs!

In game news

The assault on Karazhan began again last night, with 20 more intrepid souls marauding forth into its murky depths. Attumen the Huntsman fell over with a minimum of fuss, but Moroes was being a 'tard. He will give me his dagger tonight.

Guild news

Those of you who find their way to this page from my *ahem* subtle forum signature will have by now probably seen our benevolant overlord's post regarding that infallible gnome, Melyanna. Poor sap went out one night and came back with a new position. If you've got any problems/queries/concerns that you want voiced to the establishment, talk to him. He's nice, honest, though to save money due to his expected increase in workload and the costs that go with it, he's now had to outsource to Bangalore.*

I promised you some fluff to go on this site so here is my first bit for quite some time. As such I may be a little rusty so be gentle. Hope you enjoy it:

Was it good for you?


*This may be a lie

...and off we go

This blog is, of course, the brainchild of our poet-in-residence Mithalder, and I’d just like to say good job on setting it up. Having the officers ramble on here instead of muttering to ourselves in our respective offices will probably lead to great things. Great things or unmitigated disasters. Time will tell.

Either way, it should let whoever decides to entertain themselves by reading it get a better feel for the different officers – you’ll find that whatever your concerns or ideas, chances are one of the officers shares them or thinks they’re the best thing since sliced bread :D.

Welcome one and all to the first outing of our new communications arm. Covenant is proud to invite you inside to have a poke around at the oddities that go on in the head of we, the Officers. Feel free to poke around and comment to your hearts content.

We intend to use this as a random brain dump of all sorts of stuff, from the mundane to the exciting and as soon as our benevolent overlord gets on here, the downright bizzare. There's also a good chance that I'll wind up posting far more than is probably good for me in the form of fluff and stories aplenty.

All I can say for now is watch this space...