Somehow while we were killing our new shit we added another very good rogue to our roster. He was skilled, he was always prepared and he had a voice on vent that was…er, did I already mention his fantastic skill?! Ahem. Sorry about that. What were we talking about again? Oh, right! Rogues! Well, we happened to get a second set of Fang of the Fathers, and I think it went to a fantastic, well deserving, recipient!

Dycie has always had a great attitude towards progression content, and always arrived on raid nights ready to push ahead. I think my favorite part of the night he received his daggers was that he wasn’t just excited to have received them, he was ready to get down to business, stating “watch out, here I come!”. I’m pretty sure that he was talking about his damage, and not spending his free time fighting crime in Org with Judis. Er, at least that is what I think he meant! Either way, I’m sure he will be a formidable champion!

Congratulations, Dycie!

It’s hard to believe that we are looking at the end of another expansion. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we were knocking on Arthas’ doors asking him to defile us and give up his stash. And yet here we are – ready to farm up Deathwing’s head while we wait for pandas to explode across Azeroth. It’s been a long, hard road to get to this point, and many difficult decisions were made. But looking back on it, I’m glad that we chose to travel this road, no matter the bumps on the path. We’ve lost old friends and made new ones along the way, and in the end anyone who was a part of Monolith this expansion played a role in our journey.

I don’t think the we can express how proud we are to still be here, and still be raiding as a 25 man guild, in an expansion that heralded the demise so many of our colleagues. The fact that we came out the other side of this expansion largely intact speaks volumes to our perseverance as a guild and our determination as a team. Take a few minutes to congratulate yourselves on a job well done. Take a few minutes to enjoy the downtime we now have. Find your Chi and let’s be ready move into the Mists full of energy.

Great work, Everyone. We wouldn’t be here without each of you!

Realm First Heroic Madness of Deathwing

I have been raiding in WoW for over seven years. I’ve seen encounters that you had to spend two months farming BRD for fire resist gear, encounters where you wiped 50 times just trying to get into the room, encounters where you had to have a special macro to throw the damn ball, encounters where you learned just how bad people were at staying out of the bad, encounters where your pathetic magic betrayed you, encounters where all you want to know was who missed the fucking interrupt and encounters that took you 388 pulls to kill. But never, in those seven long years, have I partaken in an encounter that was as lackluster and mind numbing as Heroic Spine of Deathwing. I can honestly say that this encounter had zero redeeming factors.

In fact, this encounter was so bad that you were frustrated and bored with it before you even took your first pull. Let’s look at it shall we?

“Hey guys, we are going to pull Spine”

“uh..I’m going to need a minute”

“Are you ready yet?”

“No, really, are you ready yet?”

Once you finally got everyone back and ready to pull, you damn near had to reflask. Of course, then you spend the majority of your time working spine doing the following:

“Grips”

…

“No, really, GRIPS”

…

*%&^ing GRIPS!

Needless to say, everyone was quite pleased to be finished with this mind numbing experience. We can only hope that Blizzard fired the dev team responsible for creating the encounter, and that we never, ever see another fight this mundane again.

Screenies and Quotes after the break!

I’m getting a little “Brade” in getting updates done timely. I apologize if they are a little slow. I blame the plague that I was infected with on my way home from San Diego. Anyhow, what is there to say about this fight? It’s probably the first fight whose ease has been determined by how well your raid is at standing in the bad. I don’t really get it, honestly, I mean of all of the fights where the raid does nothing but stand in the bad, you get to the one where you want them to love the shit on the ground and everyone seems to have grown an aversion to it!

Anyhow, a few nights of working it and something just clicked. People stood in the bad like champs, healers kept the tanks alive, and it turns on once that wussy dragon flees the fight is exceptionally easy. And so it is that we are now 6/8 and one boss closer to “beating” the expansion.

Heroic Blackhorn

Quotes after the break!

I’ve known Judis for almost seven years. Somehow it just seems right that he should get a legendary that turns him into Batman. I honestly can think of no other person in the game who will have as much fun with bat wings than Judis. In fact, I would almost guarantee that he’s plotting all of the ways to maximize the use of his new found flying ability and has a notepad and pen sitting next to his computer writing them all down so that he doesn’t forget or miss an opportunity. Wait, what was that? The bat wings weren’t the perk of the legendary? Oh, I see. Well, I’m sure that Judis will put the actual daggers to good use as well.

Congratulations, Judis! I can’t think of anyone more deserving of a legendary.  Your perseverance, positive attitude and truly terrible jokes have helped to keep Monolith moving through some of our toughest times, and I mean it when I say that the guild wouldn’t have been the same without you here. I’m sure you will make good use of your new shiny orange toys (if you don’t, Brade will put his foot up your shiny, orange ass…). Oh and have fun fighting crime all over Azeroth in your free time!

I suppose I should also mention that we killed some new shit. I’m pretty sure that they called the mechanic on this fight “Heroic Will”, because it will most definitely require a heroic amount of patience to get past the “push the fucking button already” learning curve. Anyhow, I forgot to take a screenshot of it like a champ, so have an achievement and a kill video instead.

Heroic Ultraxion