Atremedes takes a dive!

Crazy battle of buffs and debuffs!

Deadwood has been moving right along in the last two weeks, taking down both Atremedes and the Ascendant Council in Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight respectively.  We are now working on the final bosses of each of the raids.  To give us some extra time, we are now scheduling a follow-up 2 hour raid for Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight, to focus exclusively on the final bosses of the raid.  Hopefully, this will give us the extra time needed to down the boss without burning anyone out from over exposure to a particular fight.  Congrats Deadwood and keep on trucking!

Grats on the guild first all!  4/6 in Blackwing Descent.

Maloriak beaten by chemistry

On Friday March 25th, Deadwood moved forward again in Cataclysm content, taking down the challenging Maloriak.  This fight requires very tight control over the adds released, the timing of their release, as well as choreographed raid movement to move in or spread out as Moloriak works his chemistry magic (not to mention excellent raid healing all around by brocolli druids and shaman alike).  Congrats to all!

Deadwood is now 3 of 6 in Blackwing Descent, start researching to be ready for the next fights!!!

Magmaw gets Spiked

Omnitron Defense System cracked!

On Friday Feb 11, 2011, a Deadwood team successfully took down not one but TWO bosses in Blackwing Descent.  First up, Magmaw’s larvae minions and his tank killing chomp were addressed and nullified in Deadwood’s first victory in Blackwing Descent.  It is critical to have sufficient range Area Effect damage and slows to manage the adds, and the Magmaw riders must target the spike in unison to bring down Magmaw quickly.  (oh yeah, don’t stand in the bad hehe).  Following Magmaw’s defeat, the team ventured into a confrontation with the Omnitron Defense system.  There are many different abilities to learn and react to from the four bosses, but with good movement they can be mastered.  Good work Deadwood raiders and congrats on the guild first!

In General, here is the routine:

• Raid targets and dates will be posted in the guild calender on the weekend for the following week.  The invites will go out to all gunslingers.
• You should accept if you are sure (barring unforseen circumstances) that you can make it, and if you are confident that you are able to perform at the level required.
• Raid organizers will look at the folks who have accepted and organize groups that will a) have a good chance of being successful, b) include at least 7 raiders who have previous experience with the content, c) have the necessary class and role makeup to be successful.  In general, raids are composed of 3 healers, 2 tanks, 2 or 3 range dps, 2 or 3 melee dps.
• Raid organizers will track who has been running and who has been sitting to try to assign available raid spots fairly – just remember that it takes a solid core of people that are familiar with the raid movement to improve the odds of success.  This means that you will see a few people running a LOT for a couple weeks – please acknowledge the fact that these are your teammates and that they will be helping you through the raid instance when it’s your turn to go.
• Raid organizers will contact those that have been confirmed for the raid 24 hours in advance to make sure everyone is still able to run.  Use this as your cue to stock up on raiding consumables like flasks and food.  If you haven’t been contacted, you probably are not running, however, keep in mind that organizers are looking at the whole week of raiding and if you are qualified to run, they are probably trying to get you into at least one run – this is why it is key to accept the raid invite as soon as you can be sure that you are able to attend.
• Invites will typically go out about 15 minutes before the raid starts.  This is a team sport so please respect your teammates by being on time and ready to raid!

For now, our raid targets are Throne of the Four Winds, Bastion of Twilight and Darkwing Descent.  We hope to start fielding a second 10 man team (ie 2 10 mans at once,) in a few weeks, but this depends on getting a few more toons geared and ready for the content, something we will be reviewing constantly as this will widely expand the opportunity for raiding.  It may also become possible to raid in 25′s  -  there is a slightly less tanking requirement, and the dps mix requirements may be a little more forgiving – we just have to be able to get folks out to raid.

Grind for rep, run those heroics, get those crafted pieces together and we’ll see YOU in the dungeon!

The Lich King is dead. Long live the new King!

On Thursday night’s achievement run, 20 Deadwood toons got together to take down the Lich King in 25 man mode.   Congrats everyone who got the achievement!

The taller they are .....

On January 2nd, 10 Deadwood folks took down the dastardly Argaloth in the new dungeon loacated in Tol Barad – This is basically the equivalent to the Vault of Archavon dungeon located in Wintergrasp.  It took five tries but we were able to take him down finally, right at the enrage time!  You can check out the world of logs information (see Raid Statistics on the right) on the fight to see the dps and healing.

Its a fairly straight forward fight, with the tanks taunting back and forth  to avoid two tank killing blows in a row.  DPS needs to be pretty high to beat him before the enrage timer, especially when our gear levels are still very close to the 346 level.

Deadwood raiding should be formally starting on the 12th of January.  We have a few impromptu raids being started up by the eager beavers who are at the 346 level and chomping at the bit to get into raid content.  If possible, raid logs will be captured and available at world of logs.

And a side note…

A big “Thanks!” to Tarack for helping peeps get their darkmoon decks together.  The newest Darkmoon cards are 359 level epic trinkets, and will be a big help in getting people a little further along on their gear ilvl.  Keep hitting those heroics hard folks, get your gear sorted, your dps, healing and tanking cycles sorted, and bring your A game next week!

1.  Everyone will be expected to have one main toon that they run on guild raids.  This toon will be promoted to Team-Chaos and receive invites via the Calender.  If you have an alt that you would prefer to run instead, whisper an officer to have your toon’s rank changed.

2.  Guild runs will be scheduled for a certain night (see calender) with a start time of 8pm.  About 15 minutes before the raid start, the raid leads and officers will determine the grouping for the evening and begin to send out invites.  As raid makeup will be critical to success initially, the teams will be selected based on Heals, Tanks, Range dps, melee dps.  We will try to setup 1, 2 or 3 teams depending on toons available.  If there are too many of one type of character, someone may have to sit for a raid – it will be our goal to ensure no one sits 2 raids in a row.

3.  We are still considering the viability of running 25 man raids.  Initially, it seemed like 25 man raiding may be less desirable in Cataclysm because the gear levels are the same as 10 man, and both the 10 man and 25 man dungeons will share the same lockout.  However, there may be enough dungeons that we can save one for a 25 man night, and perhaps we will find that a particular dungeon is easier on 25man mode, or that the extra gear that drops makes it worth while for the effort of getting 25 people together.

For now, gear upgrading and balancing is critical to being raid ready so do what you can to research the equipment and self buffs (food, flasks and gems) that best help you maximize your contribution to the raid.  We’ll probably start posting strategy updates in the forums shortly, especially as we start getting experience in the various Cata raids.   Keep working those Heroics as much as you can for gear and points.

Have a great Holiday Season!

At long last, a ten man team of Deadwood raiders has taken down the Lich King.  It seems like forever that we have worked on this guy, and now that the dust from 4.0.1 has finally settled, it looks like we finally have his number.  Grats Deadwood!