Pandaria, her hills of gold, in dark and mournful times of old, did once a hopeless horror hold.
When from her sacred veil did spring, with storm and flash, a monstrous thing, his name Lei-Shen, the Thunder King.
His thunder boomed across the land, and none who dared and fought could stand, against the iron tyrant's hand.
A palace grand, a walled domain, such mighty works born of his reign, built by slaves, their hearts in chains.
But seasons change and tyrants die, his fury spent in times gone by, the thunder slept beneath Kun Lai.
By Zandalari hands he has been taken, by Zandalari voice he has awakened.
Exhumed's heroes came to pwn, the Thunder King's gone, the Thunder King's gone.

Last week my guild, Exhumed, killed the Thunder King, server 21st, EU 7880 and world 12474. In the grand scheme of things nothing fantastic but for a guild that raids for only 6 hours a week in a casually hard-core style I’m proud as hell of the 14 guys and gals that got us the kill. It means that we’ve got the “Ahead of the Curve” achievement for the 2nd straight tier and something that we were not able to do at all prior to Mists. Sure were rocked in Dragon Soul but that was only AFTER the nerfs came in and we took Deathwing HC down literally 2 hours before Mists launched. 

Heroic modes now await us until the Siege of Orgrimmar arrives to occupy our attention and that is something of a dilemma for me, not because I don’t think we are capable (our blitz through the first 11 bosses in less than 3 hours this week is proof that we are more than ready) but rather the way Blizzard has the HC bosses tuned. The order goes something like:

1. Jin'rokh the Breaker (1st boss)
2. Ji-Kun (6th boss)
3. Horridon (2nd boss)
4. Tortos (4th boss)
5. Iron Qon (10th boss)
6. Council of Elders (3rd boss)
7. Twin Consorts (11th boss)
8. Megaera (8th boss)
9. Durumu the Forgotten (7th boss)
10. Primordius (8th boss)
11. Dark Animus (9th boss)
12. Lei Shen (12th boss)

This means that for optimal progression you need to waste a lot of opportunities especially this late on in the tier of killing HC bosses. I am likely to not bother attempting Ji’kun heroic because we could spend time more wisely by going straight to Horridon after Jin’rohk dies on HC mode despite the fact we lose HC tier legs. Likewise once Horridon HC dies the council at 6th toughest doesn’t seem worth passsing by to go to Tortos HC because of the HC tier gloves there.

All in all the HC progression should be linear if the instance is linear. However that begs the question should raids be linear (as every raid instance in Mists has been), winged like Naxxramas and ICC was or more freestyle like Ulduar and Firelands was?

My personal preference is freestyle like Ulduar/Firelands it means progression in HCs can be more illogical without the need to kill normal mode bosses get to the HC boss you want to try next. I also prefer this layout for normal modes as it gives you options to vary the route you take and if there are a few “optional” bosses along the way it allows you to miss them out completely if nobody needs loot from them and therefore gives you more time to work on progression.

If you were able to design your perfect raid what style would you have? Would you bosses rise in difficulty in a logical order on heroic modes? Would you have optional bosses in normal mode?

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I am please to report that the valiant Exhumed raid team got Heroic Madness of Deathwing down on September 24th 2012.

Yes, that's right the day BEFORE the expansion, 40 minutes to be exact). While the team last night did the dirty deed, the whole raid team deserve full credit and those that were not there last night will be sent off to repeat the kill later but for now we have new lands to explore.

The team that has brought us here are:

• Tanks: Acheronos, Brimar, Maxizilian
• Healers: Elysha, Evlyxx, Lifeshifter, Seleigh.
• Melee: Funforhire, Jehst, Kojiro, Pewpewboom.
• Ranged: Baniza, Emalie, Gasp, Hellsmiss, Sophina, Zuf.

There are also some players that have been able to step in from the shadows during the past few months and I'm hoping to see more of them in our Pandacraft campaigns.

After the gremlins ate my screenshots or I was sooo excited I was pressing the wrong button, Elysha saved the day with the image so a special thank you to Elysha.

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Can I play with Madness?

Well the simple answer is yes! After the fine boys and girls of Exhumed finally got round to killing Spine of Deathwing on heroic Just goes to show what perseverance and some dedicated folks can do when they want to.

We had a few pulls of Madness and thought that we do still have a chance of killing him before mists lift on Panderia and we're aiming for a server last and heck if we go to the wire on Monday it could even be a world last in Cataclysm. 

We're still recruiting (see the panel on the right for our needs) and if things continue in Pandacraft as we have ended Cataclysm we're looking in real good shape, so if you're looking for a new home in a non-hardcore guild (no attendance requirements and upto 9 hours raiding a week over 2-3 nights), where you can have fun and kill heroic bosses, with no elitist douchebags we could be the guild for you!

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This week saw the Power of the Aspects increase another 5% so now bosses are hitting 30% lighter and only have 30% of their original hit points. While it has made some normal modes far too easy (I’m sure even the most casual of raiding guilds could 5 man Morchok and therefore should be able to kill him on heroic mode) it is allowing my guild to make more progress into heroic modes so I’m not complaining too loudly. However I am a bit concerned that there is a Wowhead entry for the spell to be increased to 35% as this is just plain silly as we’ve reverted back to 3 healers on Deathwing purely because it is far too easy to do too MUCH DPS on the toe nails and spawn the Blistering Tentacles soon after the Mutated Corruption has spawned even when starting on the blue platform!

Anyway I digress, nerf or no nerf the guys and gals of Exhumed downed Yor’sahj on heroic mode this week which puts us at a not too shabby 3 of 8 on heroic mode. We’re not the first by a long way but all the same we’re proud to have done it and that is all that matters. We’d spent an hour or so wiping and hit the enrage timer at least once and in the end we decided that we could 2 heal and 1 tank so myself and Brimar donned our off spec guises and went and hit things. My off spec gear is still crap due to running with 4 or more paladins each week and having 3 warlocks occasionally raiding and stealing my OS tier loot. But I was pleased to do well enough on our first try with me DPSing to actually kill him.

In other news, I’ve now finally got my 1st 85 Horde, my “other” priest, Wilkini who I have levelled as Shadow and am in the process of gearing up to get him some healing action and  into some Raid Finder. I’m in a 900 strong guild and so far this past few weeks have seen no more than 4 people online! So needless to say I’m looking for a more active guild in terms of numbers online, if they raid at any level its a bonus so if you’re Hordside on Ahn’Qiraj EU send me a message and I’ll gladly come join your guild! 
EDIT: I have just taken advantage of the Blizzard Summer Sale on 25% off realm transfers and moved him to Kazzak EU! Now I need to find a guild there ;p

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The title says it all, so just a quick post to say that I did it! Well OK me and 9 others. As with most first kills it wasn't text book but the record book showed we killed him and we got loot so who cares how messy it was.

Grats to Brimar and Lifeshifter on their loot wins too, hopefully there will be more for us all. The big question now is which boss next? If you have any suggestions, please post a comment below... more »

Must admit I haven't planned this post so apologies in advance for the ramble....

Well we got Pandas.Mists of Pandaria will be the next expansion. I love that and am now praying that Blizz give us at least 1 more slot on the character selection screen cos I already have my 10 character slots filled with 1 of each class all at a level where I'll not be deleting 1 (although if pushed I probably would evict one to get a Pandaren Monk on the roster. Am really surprised they don't get druids as a class option though as it seems a really good fit for the race. Warriors, hunters, rogues (a bizarre choice but hey), priests, shaman, mages and of course monks are the classes so far.

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Cork, our resto druid in Halls of Origination, yes they let me DPS sometimes too

Blizzard seem to have the healing thing rightish but not perfect, The main flaw is my heal size compared to tank health pool and the damage coming in, it simply is not in balance. Lets define a few things here. 

Blizzards goal: Healing should not be a spamfest but rather a triage approach;

Tank HP: 150,000

Stad Boss damage: 25,000 every 2 seconds

Heal = my econo heal: 8,000 every 2.3 seconds

Flash Heal = my fast heal: 17,000 every 1.4 seconds

Greater Heal = my big heal: 22,000 every 2.3 seconds

Renew = my HoT: 3,000 every 3 secondsm

Power Word: Shield: absorbs 10,000 damage every 15 seconds;

Prayer of Mending: a heal in advance approx 5,000 every 6 seconds

To cope with the incoming damage there are 3 choices:

1) Keep my renew, PW: Shield and PoM up on the tank and pray the tank avoids 2 of every 3 boss attacks and spam my heal;

2) Keep my renew, PW: Shield and PoM up on the tank and pray the tank avoids 2 of every 3 boss attacks and my hit the tank with a Greater Heal when his HP needs topping up;

3) Keep my renew, PW: Shield and PoM up on the tank, spam my heal and throw in a Flash Heal or Greater Heal depending on the speed I need to play catch up;

All 3 are viable solutions but they all rely on DPS either not taking damage or applying self heals and either the tank avoiding a lot of damage and applying some self heals and if 3 is applied I end up out of mana real quick and even using potions, the Hymn of Hope and Shadowfiend really provide very little returns. Although I did /cheer when the mana regen hotfix got applied on December 15th and it did make a noticeable difference.

The big point for me though is that I am having to throw out a heal every Global Cooldown (GCD) which goes against the Blizzard goal. To add to the frustration any movement I need to make is a huge risk as it is a few GCDs without heals going out to either the tank or the DPS and either the fight mechanics are designed really intelligently or I'm on the end of bad luck as the times I always need to move are those clutch situations where I really need to be casting big heals.

The major plus point for me is that I have become a better healer and begun to blow cooldowns Pain Suppression, Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope much more freely than ever before. Well I was always liberal in my use of pain suppression but never the hymns.

Also, the guys from SKF have begun to realise that I will let them die if it is a choice between them or the tank and have begun to move faster from the fires or using any self heal abilities. 2 weeks ago I was offended when Dixxie, my pally tank (yes he belongs to me not the guild) was healing himself with his Word of Glory as I took it as a failure on my part, now I love it and treat it as an intelligent "oh shit" feature.

All told the new heroics are just that, heroic. They are really like 5 man raids and for that Blizzard must be applauded. The players that want to get better will get better by running these heroics and those that QQ about them being to tough, to long and needing too much strategy will either quit or just get by running normals until their gear is maxed out with 333 loot, rep rewards upto 359 and all the heroic badge gear their class can get from Justice Points that they are able to pug heroics at a reasonable pace. 

Finally a plea to Blizzard, please, please, please do not nerf these heroics not now, not ever. Infact, when the next tier of raiding comes out could you buff them so the mobs hit a little harder and have more HP so we don't start over gearing them.

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Go me, I did ding 85 and yes I still had my T10 robes (although all other epics had gone /cry)

Well the first 3 weeks of Cataclysm have passed and it is really about time I started to talk about it I guess. I have been very busy playing and have had some time off work but now the main buzz has settled.

I did not do the mad zerg to 85 many friends and guildies did, day 1 was spent farming ore and herbs on my druid to fund my profession levelling and I managed to get him to 82 just doing the farming piece. Days 2 and 3 were spent gathering, levelling professions and levelling Evlyxx through quests and dungeons. Healing the Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns present no real challenge but they did show signs of advanced strategy and that is only good for us all.

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