Knights of Honor

What happens when you throw 10 Knights into a confined space with an angry dragon?

Oh yes, you get a big time kill of the final boss in the expansion.

We have saved Azeroth!  We have vanquished the Destroyer!  And doing this on our first pull of the night makes it a special night indeed!

This kill, and the completion of the Dragon Soul raid is a huge testament to the work that you have all put into the guild.   The Crusaders that bravely lead the way on each boss, the Knights that gave their time and effort so many nights as we fine-tuned our strats, all members for their donations of raid supplies, and everyone that just lent moral support.  This tier, and in fact this whole expansion has been a blast; and I consider myself honoured to have been able to share it with you.

Even though we got our first kill, the Knights of Honor intend to re-visit Deathwing in several of the weeks to come.  It's my hope that our mains can start a handful of hard modes and we might even see alts running DS by themselves.  We also intend to back track and take out the mighty Ragnaros - we have unfinished business!  So stay tuned for much more fun!

Ah, the Spine of Deathwing…how we love and hate you.

I will give Blizzard credit, for what is essentially a trash gauntlet with great loot drops this is a really fun encounter. Perfect play will result in a win: everyone needs to know what the strat is, move efficiently, and know when to control and/or burst. We have been working on this encounter for a month now, ever since our first Warmaster kill on Mar 2. Some nights it was a quick peak at the end of 6 boss romp and some nights it was a full on two hour head bashing routine. Every time we attempted the boss, we got a little further and refined our strategy. Our DPS increased to the point where we were routinely killing tendons (with time to spare) in one phase, our healers got used to the ebb and flow of the fight, and our tanks…well, you guys were important I am being told.

On April 2, 10 brave Knights and Knightettes took off for the Dragon Soul raid with one boss on the agenda. We had a couple of issues getting started: one late tank cancellation, one tank MIA, and short a DPS. A little scramble got us the people we needed, and with E’s pocket tank (he’s not a crutch guy, he just fits in your pocket) we headed in 10 strong and hungry for blood…and maybe a little tendon on the side. In fact, we ended up with a rather stacked group with two mages, two rogues, and a stabby shammy on deeps!

We had a brief strategy talk on the boat before diving down to the destroyer. We sorted out our roles (I don’t know why we do this, everyone just ignores me anyways) and started the event. Our first couple of tries had early deaths and were called as wipes. We had issues with healers being chomped by bloods and/or picking up the new Amalgamations that spawn after a plate blows up. Adjustments were made (we gave E more work to do, it was beautiful) and more attempts were had…and we got better!! Attempt 3 brought us to the third plate, the 4th had the plate to 40%...

On attempt 6, things didn’t look so hot. We had been juggling the time at which we drag the Amalgamation through the blood puddles. We had found that if we wait for the second grip that we got a third grip mid plate – that’s bad for DPS. However, if we jumped on the first group of bloods when there are only 8 down (and kill the 9th while Dad and the Amalgamation are dancing in the mid field) then we could time the last grip to be during the Nuclear Blast (pad those numbers ranged). This worked fantastic, that is until we got the first grip on melee DURING the start of the nuclear blast…needless to say that 9 people had a smile when they saw me vaporized by the bursting Amalgamation.

However, that attempt got better. I got a rez half way though the first tendon and we coasted our way through it. The second tendon was handled in spectacular fashion: we killed the grip just as the plate shot up and burned that sinewy mess down! We almost missed with the nuclear blast; the damage dealers were on fire and almost got the Amalgamation before it got to the plate. A scramble ensued after the second plate as E desperately tried to hold off seven million bloods. Everyone kept their cool though; either that or they were so focused and frazzled that vent was silent. The next thing you know the Amalgamation is at 18% and we tell Dad to go. Whoosh goes the warrior with the big meanie in tow…9 stacks came in less than a second and the boss came roaring towards the plate.

I remember the plate tearing up…and at the time I thought it was plate #2.
I saw hero popped a second after the plate went up.
I thought *OH * and popped everything…and I know I wasn’t the only one to do so.
I saw 50% come in a hurry. 30% just seconds later. 10% and “PUSH!”. 4%, 3…2…1…and my UI freezes.

Did we win? I asked myself…then the cinematic came up.
“WOOHOO, nice job everyone!” was all that was needed to be said (I am sorry if I ruptured your ear drums with my joyous cry).

We enjoyed the cinematic, we had earned it and it was break time anyways.
Grats to Cerri for her BiS trinket and Dad for some offspec junk shoulders!

A big tip of the hat to our healers, we had all 10 players on their feet until the dying moments of the fight (except for my nuclear meltdown on plate #1).  It was only during the last few seconds of the last tendon that people started to drop.  Another big "way to go" to the DPS that burned everything any anything that stood in our way, and did so quickly (having 4-5 seconds left on Seal Armor Breach casts when a tendon dies makes the fight easy).

Our first look at the Madness of Deathwing fight lasted about an hour. During this time we were able to get to the last platform routinely and put a serious dent in the Destroyer’s face. We’ll get him soon, the toughest fights are behind us now!

It has been 6 weeks since we downed Ultraxion.

In those six weeks we have pushed, prodded, kicked, stabbed, burned, and just about every other nasty thing we could have done to Warmaster Blackhorn and his ambushing lackies. It seemed that no matter what we did, we couldn't get through the fight, we were perpetually bested by the elite tauren squad. We had some moments of brilliance and excellent game play on most nights, but what we didn't have was that element of perfection that makes a first kill. We would lose one person to a barrage, the next attempt would have two people charged, or a sapper would slip by with an onslaught at the front of the boat (I refuse to say bow again....this time I mean it). Oh, those sappers....those mean little buggers.

However, on February 29th, our wonderful bonus day (woohoo for fudging a calendar!) we headed into a fresh DS run. We were on a mission tonight. With E filling in as a tank (and the cattle prod that I had attached to him), we sped through the trash pulls and lined up to bosses quickly. We one shotted Morchok, Zan'ozz, and Yor'Sahj before break, that is after having tank races on Yor'Sahj's trash. We mopped up Hagara and Ultraxion fairly soon afterwards leaving us a fair amount of time to take on Blackhorn.

Tonight was the night that it all clicked. We avoided the excess damge, kept the ship up, and beat the stuffing out of everything in our path.

 A big pat on the back everyone, get ready for Spine!

So, as many of you know, we have been making quick work of the first half of the Dragon Soul raid these days.  With more practice, we have got to a point that we can clear the first four bosses of the raid in one two-hour sitting; that's not half bad.  However, until this last week, we really didn't have much time on the 5th boss Ultraxion.

Ultraxion is the DPS/HPS check encounter in DS.  It requires a substantial amount of damage output while healers fight to keep this alive...oh yeah, this is coupled with a couple of one-shot mechanics.  It's not an easy fight, especially once you first get to it.

On Wednesday, January 9, 10 brave Knights and Knightettes took off for the Caverns of Time to poke around a bit and see if we could save Wyrmrest Temple from certain devestation (oh yeah, the world too).  We got off to a great start by clearing Morchok in less than 15 minutes, we breezed through our buddy Zan'ozz, wiped on some Yor'Sahj trash (we dusted ourselves off and took him down promptly), and even managed two attempts on Hagara - she didn't survive the second go.  That's right Knights - one night and 4 dead bosses (and a happy rogue).

So, then, with the place clear to the brick wall Ultraxion, we didn't have a whole lot of choice going into our Sunday evening raid. 

We headed in and had a brief motivational chat about the trash.  I don't know what happened, but we managed to clear the trash on the first pull; then promptly wiped on the boss as we had all forgot that he was linked to the trash.  Ok, pick ourselves up and take the time to talk about the boss.  We tried Ultraxion for a hour and a half before calling it a night, but not before learning a lot (including which "save me" buttons work on Hour of twilight) and refined our strategy. 

With one more raid night in the week, we headed back into the Dragon Soul raid on Monday, January 16 for another crack as the shadowy monstrosity.  The efficiency with which the trash killed us was astounding - three wipes due to silly wandering dragons.  We preservered and managed to get through the trash in about a half hour.  On to the boss!

Ultraxion's mechanics are rather simple - click the extra action button when you have two seconds left on fading light and/or when he has two seconds left on his cast of Hour of Twilight while pumping out everything you have. Sounds simple right?  Well, it is when you manage to keep track of the Hour of Twilight so that people can soak the blast (I think we had more wipes to people not making it out in time or missing their turn than anything else).  It's simple when you manage to heal through the 30k DPS that we seem to take just before enrage.  It seems so simple to keep our DPS around the 30k mark for a simple patchwerk fight.  However, we managed to have a little breakdown of at least one of the above on each attempt.  When we managed to get the mechanics down, we would hit the enrage timer.  We made some adjustments (including having Winkk shed her tree branches for antlers and feathers - and no, that's not a regular saturday night event for Dad and Winkk, I asked) and gathered our strength for a few more tries.

Leading up to this last pull, we had managed some wonderful progress.  We had an 8% wipe, a few 13-14% wipes, and a ton more sub 20% meltdowns.  We knew we could do the fight, we just needed it to 'click' for us like so many of the bosses before.  Bolstered by the though of making our first kill (and thereby justifying the 300g in repairs for the last two evenings), we headed in!

And you know what...we did awesome!  Tane and Cammy pounded out the heals, Dad and Dav flawlessless handed the boss off between the two of them, Dav called our Fading Light debuffs, melee slashed away as spells flew overhead, and E looked dapper in the corner.  Sooner than I had expected we hit 30% and Sytlos popped a Tranquility, 22% came seconds later and Winnk threw out hers as a last big help for the healers.  We hit an hour of twlight (#4 if memory serves), popped hero and started to burn.  12% and I see a blank spot in my UI where there was once a ranged DPS, 8% and I see another greyed out health box, 6% comes and goes...and the pressure is on with 35 seconds to enrage, 4% and I bite it just after popping a cookie and a self heal, 2% is met with a quiet moment broken up by "hold it together", 1%...

And a sigh of relief as Dad and Tane's spirit form stood triumphantly atop Wyrmrest at the end of the fight (that's called cutting it close).  The magic of last try prevailed and Ultraxion laid at the base of the giant Dragonblight keep.  After a brief discsussion about whether it was worth going down to take a picture with the boss or take it up top and a brief set of rolls that lead to Cammy taking all of the loot (just because he brings food and summons doens't mean he needs everything Blizz), we called it a night and headed off to sweet dreams of dragon killing.

Fantastic work everyone!

We're two weeks into the Hour of Twilight patch.  Two weeks, that's it! 

And do you know what KoH has been up too?

We've been killin' bosses.

Morchok was the first to go, he fell over on night #2 of the patch (which coincided with our first raid night).  He wasn't a pushover, it took us a few goes to get him reduced to something we could make shinies from.  After our second visit, we basically put the intro fight in the DS raid on farm status - Fatty is not an issue for KoH.

Yor'Sahj was our second target, he took us into the Friday of week #2.  We had bounced between Yor'Sahj and Zan'ozz a few times while we got the feel for both encounters.  We came into tonight having a good feeling - previous nights on Yor'Sahj had been left alive at under 30%, so a good kill was imminent. 

When we're hot, like we were tonight, we tend to have less good stories about the run.  When things go smoothly, then we can't talk aobut the accidental body pulls or other fun things, they just don't seem to happen when we're on.

Zon'ozz dropped on Sunday, the 18th one night after his brother Yor'Sahj.  We did really well tonight, going from 67% on our first attempt to dead on pull #7.  After we worked through the initial Erithias malfunctions (I swear, he died on every pull), things went rather smooth.  Great work by the ranged (lead by their dance instructor E) in keeping the orb under control, and a big hats off to our healers for keeping us from having our entire face melted off!

After taking down Zan'ozz, we took a short intermission to get a few guildies their legendary Fangs of the Father quest item on Hagara - and then be completly tromped by the old girl.

But her triumph didn't last long.  One night later KoH marched back into the Eye of Eternity to exact a little revenge. 
We received a cold reception.  Well, more specifically several raiders managed to find an icy death at the hands of the ice cutters. 
When the boss warmed up to us, she began shocking our back sides as we desperately tried to form a human (and night elf/space goat/footstool gnome, etc) chain of power.
After 6 attempts and a patient warning to avoid standing in the bad stuff, we managed a nailbiter kill of Hagara.

So far, the Dragon Soul raid has been what we needed - a good challenge until you get the mechanics down which turns into a fun and fair fight once we have the feel of the fight.  I am extremely proud of our progress recently Knights, and I look forward to taking us into the second half of the Dragon Soul.

Jaycyn Note: Yes, there really was a boss there, but some silly Mage hopped out early and had to fly back. DOH!

Twas the day after Thanksgiving (US version, Canadians jumped the gun on that one...), I with my family had just settled in to relax and converse when I felt the urge to kill something.  I skillfully edged my way out of the room and down to the man cave where the kids were already playing games of their own.  I got logged in, waited for a bit, didn't see our raid leader at the requisite time, so I assembled the roster and waited some more.  I heard a shot ring out, saw feather's fly and a rogue start to gobble as he turned into a turkey right before my eyes.  It was raid time and our rogue raid leader wasn't around... had he been turkeyfied and roasted?  The investigation is still underway, but we had a Druid to kill so out with the invites, get the summons out and let's kill this guy!

After my wonderfuly breif explenation for the two that hadn't been here on Wed night, we sent Saff in for the pull.  We got thru the first transisition ok, got the seeds from the 2nd transition, and died almost imediately.  A check of the logs showed different things in various people's logs.  Some showed several seeds had exploded (kinda quick if you ask me) while others didn't show seeds, just melee swings from the left over add and the boss.  Kind of hard to diagnos that one, so we get ready to go again.... after Dav reiterates killing the add quickly... I don't know why I never think to kill adds... So off we go this time the boss stops short of the group and imediately transforms into cat, then everyone steps forward and poof he's a scorpion and we all have seeds to start the fight :(.  Not a bad recovery, we got to the second cat phase and got orbs, apparently my brief explenation was a bit too brief not my marks not sufficient as Saffie was standing by me thinking I was Key, but Key was by himself crying (mages always do that) for someone to "please get this orb off me it burns!!!".  By the time Saffie got there key was gone and I danced... and I died because my partner wasn't around either...

Pull 3, Dav feels it's time for some longer discussion, Saffie askes could I change marks around so she can follow key's moon (don't ask, I'm affraid to go there),  While Dav is still discussing how much damage a paladin can't take and .... I send saffie in hoping Dav will save here, which he does.  We're doing well, we get to the orbs again, Saffi knows where to go, Key and her start to get things sorted out, but wait.... where's Winkk?  I hope she's close I'm running,  I got out alive, whew... wait it's back! tick tick die...  A little more fighting and then everyone dies  boss at 6%...

Pull 4, I explain to Winkk how the orb works, I guess for a healer saying it's the same we did on Baleroc just means change healing targets, I mean it did take 10 or so stacks before I died.  In any case we sorted it out and were ready to pull again.  We get to the seed phase, everyone get's out and in, no deaths...  Orb phase... we all live thru it, next scorpion phase no seeds, pop hero burn!  Not quite back to cat, I get pounced and die, another drops, boss at 4%, another death bossat 3%, I'm calling out encouragement "Don't die you son's of mothers!" you know the stuff that keeps people focused...  1%  6 peeps left, and then...  well the picture explains it best :)

Grats KoH!...  Bone up on ole Rags, he just thinks he's bad!

We've been on a bit of a hot streak in the Firelands as of late; I am not quite sure if it's an interest in completing the content before patch 4.3 or just the return of some hungry raiders.  Either way, we have made great progress as of late.

On Monday, November 21, 10 brave Knights (and Knightettes) took off to the Firelands for a little fun.  We started off by knocking over Baleroc (two attempts needed), as he had been difficult on the Sunday before - It's ok Sty, I will forgive you for stealing my shoulders!  After opening the gates, we took the time to have some laughs, kill a little trash, have a brief a strategy discussion, and a coffee break - then we set to work on Alys. 

We had been here to visit the phoenix of the Firelands a couple of times before.  Our first visit was nothing special, we had just enough time on those pulls to learn the basics and get comfortable with the mechanics.  On our second visit we got a good feel for the tornadoes in phase 2 and even managed a couple of mid 40% wipes.  We headed in tonight with moderate expectations and a lot of knowledge.

Our first pull was ok...and by ok I mean ugly.  We lost a tank to a hatchling, a healer to something trivial (what it was, I cannot remember), and Dadgar and I couldn't keep on our own sides (seriously, I need to fence that man in).  We regrouped, laid out some better marks on the floor, and answered any questions that were posed about the mechanics - we had made it to the burnout, so everyone had a chance to see the fight. 

Our second pull was much better, an 8% wipe!  The first transition to phase 2 left us with one hatchling up, however he died by the time the tornadoes started to spin around the room.  Tornadoes were dodged, adds interrupted, things (other than us) were killed.  Things were going stellar until shortly after the third burnout - we didn't manage a nice collapse and both a healer and DPS took some claw rakes - and that my friends is not the way to divide your forces (ok, I get one bad pun per post).

With a little enthusiasm and the possibility of a 15 minute long wipe ahead of us again we gave it one last try for the night.  Wouldn't you know it, the old girl dropped like a rock shortly after the third burnout.  There were tense times - I remember seeing 17 stacks of Claw Rake on Stylos at one point and I know Jay had survived at 5 health after a worm/tornado incident.  A quick examination of the healers' mana showed most above 50% - so me thinks we have this fight well under control.

Alysrazor makes three new bosses in 5 days (3 raid nights).  Now, that my friends is progress!

Fantastic work everyone!  As per the discussion after the raid, we'll carry this ID over for a week to see if we can't take our Majordomo and our good buddy Ragnaros in the next couple of weeks.

Ever since we killed Beth'tilac, the Firelands raiders have had this insatiable thirst. 

For the past couple of weeks, the Knights of Honor have been learning Lord Rhyolith.   In many ways, Rhyolith is like a semi-truck:  he's big, he's hard to stear, and he hits like...well, you get it.  Since our first Beth kill, we have had varrying degrees of success on Rhyolith - some nights we were on fire, and some nights we were just set on fire.  On November 6, a handful of Knights headed off into the Firelands with a mission: tear down the big walking statue.

Our first few pulls were discouraging.  Our first 3 tries of the night ended the same way with at least one healer eaten by adds; adjustments were made and tank were whipped (I think Dav liked it).  The came the stearing issues: we had a couple of back to back attempts where Rhyolith took off in a corner and took a gulp of liquid hot magma *cue Austin Powers music*.  Further adjustments were made, belts were tightened, and the tanks were whipped again...and we managed to get him into phase 2.  Even though this attempt ended in a 6% wipe, it renewed the energy in the room.  With the renewed vigor (and yes, more threats that the beatings would continue until morale improved), KoH managed to get our first Lord Rhyolith kill.

Not to be outdone by Sunday's raid, we went into the Firelands again on Monday night to take a peek at Baleroc, the gatekeeper.  The video for this guy made it look easy - the odd tank swap, a dps shuffle, and no healing assignments...what could go wrong.  Pull 1: DPS gets nuked by the crystal then a dead tank.  Pull 2: crispy fried mage (a la mode) and then a dead tank.  Pull 3: more of the same.  As we were sitting down and licking our wounds, a quiet voice spoke up over vent...it was Stylos who noted that the OT takes 250k minimum on the Decimation Blade, despite his beefy appearance Stylos is not quite that tough.  So we make an adjustment, the healers bless the plan, and we're off! And wouldn't you know it, we had monumental progress.  A couple of tries later after taking the advice of the squishies and Baleroc dropped like a pinata.  A first night kill!

And with that, KoH went 4/7 in the Firelands.  Back to back nights with first kills made this a great week for KoH.  Thank you all for your dedication in working through the Firelands - Alysrazor is up next!

October 16:

The once was a guild that lived in a shoe
They had so many signups they didn't know what to do
So we gave them all flasks without any bread
Then whipped them all soundly and put them...to the firelands

I know, it's doesn't really rhyme, but that's where we went!

And once there, what happened?  Well, we marched our way up to Beth'tilac.  Ok, well marching might be a little of a strong word.  You see, on our numerous trash wipes, we had time to talk about the holes in the crab bucket and see if we would "fix it" or to discuss the easter egg that is this Boss' name (she casts "Widow's Kiss" - for more info see kev)

Once we got to the boss, things picked up a little.  While our first few attempts made us look like Humpty Dumpty after his little spill, we quickly adjusted and refined our techique.  On pull 6 of the evening and lots of time left in our raid - oh and a wish upon a star - we soon had a chance to sit around and sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Nice job Knights and Knightettes - next up Lord Rhyolith!

My apologies to all of the Knights and Knightettes out there.  This should have been posted sooner.  I have been trying to keep on the DL after that weekend in Booty Bay.  I tell ya, those goblins know some great games... ahem, I digress.

I am pleased to announce that KoH managed to wrap up the tier 11 content before the end of August.  In doing so, we were awarded an achievement and a stylish new mount. 

We managed to nab Cho'Gal on August 25th.  He put up a pretty good fight, in fact we managed to kill him with only minutes left in our raid time.

Immediately following our first Cho'Gal kill, lwe took our first stabs at the Throne of the Four Winds.  As you can see below, previous visits did yield success.  On August 29, we managed to kick ov Al'akir.

They didn't let me keep his crown.  This guy didn't take too long - we had the first two phases under control right off the hop - adding a 3rd dimension to phase 3 always seems to get us (Malygos anyone?). 

Coupled with Nef joining his sister for the 3,281st time, many of our members received a nifty new title. 

We revelled in our victories...for they were great and we had pie.

Now, what does one do when they are victorious?  Well, most of us go any try to pick another fight (we're like lemmings in a way).  The good news is, if you pick enough fights you're bound to win one or two.  On September 8, we got our first win against a firelands boss by taking down Shannox.  It was an impromptu hunter strategy and a a lot of frantic movement - nice work everyone.

Get ready for Beth the spider and a few more friends in the firelands.