Behind the Screenshot: Fel-Missed

A look to the past as we explore what built up to and resulted from some of the most interesting boss kills I’ve been apart of.

Quick decisions are unsafe decisions-Sophocles

Edit: Video added!

Everyone remembers Sunwell right? It was a magical land of milk, honey, joy, and joyness. Where the beer flowed like wine and the epics rained down from the heavens like April in Seattle. It was a simpler time, a–wait no, we’re talking about Sunwell? The Sunwell. The same instance that Blizzard famously asserted was far too difficult.

We didn’t know any better. We were just a hard-nosed group of hardcore raiders looking for something to raid after Illidan met his demise. The encounters in Sunwell were intense, cinematic, and presented challenges that no one had ever thought possible in a raid instance.

From the demon world of Kalecgos to the dueling Fire and Shadow Eredar, every step along the way was a test of mental toughness. Raid Leaders were forced to make wild swings in composition adjustments from one boss to the next (and there were only six!). Substandard classes were sat outside on buff duty to prep the brave raiders who had the cajones to enter and face these bosses. One such boss, the third in the instance, Felmyst; a blue dragon struck down by the mighty Brutallus and resurrected with his demonic essence.

Felmyst was a challenge. In raid composition, tactics, and the raid leader’s ability to make lightning quick decisions that decided the fate of the entire raid. In just mere seconds, that decision could be the difference between a wipe or a kill.

The Original Post

Smelly Pixel Dragon

Behind the Screenshot: Old God, New Tricks

Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, win a little more.”–Louis L’Amour

I’ve always told the members of my raid that if you play well, play hard, and have fun doing it, your rank will reflect that hard work. Playing as a team and working towards that common goal pays off in itself. As soon as you get too caught up in how well other guilds are playing, you start to lose focus on what you’re doing: killing the boss in front of you. This is a philosophy you tend to be accustomed to in the cliche’d world of team sports, but it is just as true in WoW.

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, our goal as a raid team was simple. We weren’t going to be satisfied playing at a level that would put us behind in content. We wanted to be out in front experiencing everything when it was relevant. If we were server 1st, Alliance 1st, or server 5th it didn’t matter, as long as we were staying at pace with the other top guilds on the server.

It wasn’t until Ulduar that we truly stepped to the front of Alliance progression, proving to ourselves that we could play at a high level.

Click for the original post.

Behind the Screenshot: The Logistics of Lady Vashj

A look to the past as we explore what built up to and resulted from some of the most interesting boss kills I’ve been apart of.

Eighty-percent of success is showing up.–Woody Allen

Click to view the original post. I'm the Arrakoa on the left.

Choosing the first boss kill to use for this series of posts was quite difficult. Every boss that is defeated results in a screenshot (exceptions for all those silly achievements), and every screenshot has some story behind it. I’ve talked before about the beauty (and ugliness) of near one percent wipes.  The best thing about a screenshot is everyone is alive.  A passerby can look at all those involved, all standing, all very proud of what they’ve accomplished.

For members who were there, it’s a frozen moment in time.  Many of the raiders you see in the above picture no longer raid with BRM (many remain closely connected to the guild, however), but we remember all of them.

I went with Lady Vashj from TBC because it marked the first real progression boss that I had the pleasure of raid leading. She presented us with a unique challenge that we really hadn’t faced yet during that expansion.