Decorating

I have to admit, this new statue that you get for killing Archimonde on normal mode or higher is pretty decent. A lot better than the Master Draenor Crafter and Master of Apexis statues, at any rate.

Unfortunately, although the ol' Garrison looks a little better, my gear doesn't - the past couple of weeks have been pretty average for loot. Even though I managed to scrape a full clear on normal and 6 bosses on heroic, I've only had a couple of minor upgrades for offset pieces... which means my iLvl (and therefore DPS) will still be on the low side.

On the upside, I did manage to score this little guy in my guild raid, which kind of makes up for it:

Now if I could just score the gun off Heroic Hellfire Assault, I'd be OK, I think. It would be nice to get some tier or trinkets, of course, but I'd be a lot more comfortable going for the better Heroic PuGs with a decent ranged weapon.

Argh-imonde

Week 3 in Hellfire Citadel brought me 2 heroic kills to add to my 12/13 normal kills and although the DPS requirement is clearly tougher, it wasn't too bad.

Archimonde, on the other hand, was a different story.

Stand too close at the wrong time, you wipe. Stand too far at the wrong time, you wipe. Stand in fire at the wrong time, you wipe. Don't stand in portal at the wrong time, you wipe. Don't interrupt, you wipe.

I have now done a few PuGs on Archi with raids of varying ability and have to admit that the fight is well designed as a final boss... by which I mean there is very little room for error.

I also experienced something that I can't remember experiencing for a very long time, if at all - I got kicked from a PuG for being the lowest DPS.

Not running a DPS mod, it took me by surprise until I looked at the logs and discovered I was the lowest ilvl as well - apparently 694 isn't fantastic for doing the last boss of HFC, which I suppose is understandable considering you could have had higher with heroic BRF and crafted gear.

This week I'm starting the PuG grind a little higher at 697, including a new gun, so hopefully I'll look a little better in the gear stakes. Not quite as high as the group I got kicked from - most of them were >700 - but at least not "fresh off the BRF boat"!

Fel Over Zakuun

Week 2 of raiding Hellfire Citadel and the PuGs have been good.

After last week's effort, I've managed to fill in those gaps and now sit at 12/13 Normal, with the guild at 5/13.

I'm actually very impressed with this raid. Almost all of the fights are complex and therefore interesting to me, which makes it enjoyable (although on the other hand, potentially frustrating if your raid members are struggling).

For those who have gotten that far, no, I don't know what happened with Fel Lord Zakuun either... and it's not like Blizzard are likely to re-tune him, since making a boss harder after some guilds have downed him wouldn't feel great.

I'm looking forward to trying to get a PuG for Archimonde again this week - I had some attempts and have seen to 40%, but would like to see what the Twisting Nether looks like.

Plus, it's infinitely easier to get PuGs if you already have a kill, so the earlier I can get it, the better. Having a full clear on Normal might also stand me in good stead to start trying for Heroic PuGs, as well.

Hell and High Water

Well, week 1 of raiding in Hellfire Citadel and my armory page looks completely wacky:

As a guild, Ashes (plus assorted friends, including some of my old Proudmoore guildies from Southern Wardens) managed to down the first four bosses on normal and had some good attempts on the fifth.

Not too bad, considering we had to work out mechanics (and the fact that we only raid for ~3hrs twice a week); I don't anticipate them being any trouble for us whatsoever when we head back in there this week.

Being me, I was of course keen to see the rest of the place, so managed to get two different PuGs to down Gorefiend and Mannoroth, with some attempts on Xhul'horac (now there's a chaotic fight!) and Archimonde (yeah... NFI what's going on there).

Overall, I'm extremely happy with this new raid - the mechanics and visuals are interesting and definitely a step up in difficulty from Blackrock Foundry.

I'm really looking forward to seeing some more of it. It's been awhile since I've felt a real challenge in raiding due to being limited to clearing heroic BRF instead of moving onto mythic. Even better, the heroic mode for this dungeon seems a lot more.... heroic. As it should be, considering it's a tier up - I don't expect to get bored any time soon!