Status report of the vauge kind
Things have been rather up and down with the Guild lately. ICC has rolled out and we seem to be stuck progression-wise on the icky Rotgut and Fester. Our guild sign-ups fluctuate wildly – one night we have 38 and yet another we’re scraping around for more people. It’s a little frustrating really. We’ve bumped up the number of 10-man ICC and 25 TOC runs to try to improve our gear score and see if that will help but really it seems to be a coordination issue. Progression-wise we are pretty far up on the server – I think last I looked we were 3rd Alliance side. It just feels like we are up against a block… part of me doesn’t mind it in the least – it reminds me of our SSC days of hammering for months on a single boss. The rest of me gets a headache just thinking about it.
I REALLY want to see us finish Ulduar too. It’s been hanging over our head too long. I just want to see it done. I want to see the hard end too though I’m starting to think that will never happen. I’m glad I at least got to see Yogg down on 10-man… but I’m GREEDY -I want it on 25 and hard mode too!
What I really need is a vacation from Real Life, one that would let me spend unholy amounts of time playing WOW and not thinking about anything else… preferably with a maid and a cook.
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AWESOMESAUCE!
http://www.wow.com/2009/12/09/the-single-greatest-thing-that-has-ever-happened-ingame/
what more is there to say? Except I am SO trying that!
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Mostly Neglected and Jaded Souls kicking ass on progression
I think that Mostly Neglected should be the new name of this blog since we have barely been updating. Between real life and running the guild it seems that there is never quite enough time and this gets shoved to the end of the list… not that we are famously well-read or anything ;P
In Jaded Souls news – we have been kicking butt with progression kills – finished TOC 25 and Ulduar 10 – done quite a few hardmode’s and took down the first couple bosses in ICC. It feels like things are finally clicking and that the guild has recovered from “the summer of discontent” and all the changes that have happened.
One of the things that has helped us along the most is the fact that we made very good choices when promoting our new officer corps. They have shown time and time again that our trust has not been misplaced. They make decisions when needed, support our policies and give us their valuable input time and time again.
In general WOW news – the new content (what little I’ve seen of it – 10man ICC last night for a bit and the Pit on 5man) is amazing and challenging. The visuals are just awesome 
AND there is a piratey battle on flying ships with Rocketpacks that is just AWESOME.
My inner pet-whore has been very satisfied lately too. Sand & Chlorii gave me the adorable Panda-Monk for my birthday and Bliz has been handing out pets like candy. There was Mr. Chilly for switching to Battlenet (which you had to do regardless- that is a rant for another day) the Onyxia whelpling for their 5 year anniversary and just yesterday – a core-hound puppy for having an authenticator! YAAAAAY!! I refuse to count how many pets I have now… I’m guessing I’m pushing 100.
Anyway – Oaks and I are off for some WinterVeil Shopping! I will try to be better about updating and hopefully will have a more complete post regaling our recent week of 8 or 9 progression kills shortly.
Hmm -does anyone know where I can buy Asgara a Gnome?
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Sad tidings and musings
Jaded Souls lost one of its own this weekend when Lielisia, boomkin and wife of Balorr, lost her battle with cancer. It has been several months since she has been with us, but Balorr has been getting on at night – looking for distraction. She was an amazing person, loving mother, wonderful friend and one heck of a raider. It seems hard to believe that just a year ago we were teasing her and Balorr about their coming baby, jokes about a dwarf and a night elf’s baby and raiding with a bottle.
Thinking about all this makes me realize what a strange dichotomy exists when you play a game online with other people. It’s a game and we always remember that its just a game. But a the same time – the friendships and connections that you form are real. These people become your friends, true friends – regardless of whether you see them in the flesh or not. You spend hours talking to them, working towards common goals and playing this game that you all love. You come to care about people. My heart is breaking for Balorr, and his children and family. I’ve seen him in real life half a dozen times (he and Oaks were coworkers) but that doesn’t make the depth of the loss I feel any less. Lielisia was one of ours, we shared triumphs and wipes together, shared long whispered conversations and witty reparte in guild chat. That love is real, those connections are real even if they take place in a virtual world.
I came to appreciate how much my online family meant to me earlier this year when I experienced devastating loss in my real life. While I was going through some of the worst times in my life, they were there for me. Whether I was signing on for a quick few moments to distract myself, or understanding when I canceled my raids at the last minute – they were there. Their care and compassion meant the world to me. I know that Balorr knows how much his online family is thinking of him, praying for him, and is with him in spirit even though, as usual, their body may be far away. I hope he can draw some small amount of comfort from the knowledge that we are with him.
And we say this is only game.
The Feathery Fold of Jaded Souls
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Quick update :)
Yeah yeah…. updates have been few and far between these days -and for that I’m sorry 
The guild is continuing to recover from the summer of our discontent – raiding is back in a big way and we’re adding more and more awesome people every day!!
Andromedea, Asmysa, Bjornne and Kamaal have all hit 80. Poor Morrighane is still 1/4 of a level away -but doing her shadowy best to catch up!
Now it’s off to bed for me!
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Onyxia 25 man “How TO”
Onyxia whelps AoE
Here is what worked for us last night. I wanted to get it written out so we wouldn’t forget and beat our heads against it next time and thought I’d share with anyone that might be looking for a strat that works. This writeup assumes you have at least some knowledge of the fight.
We had 3 tanks and 7 healers. I think if the DPS was high enough we could go with 2 tanks and 6 healer.
The Pull:
Have the hunters chain-misdirect to the Main Tank. It’s important to get her into place very quickly so the DPS can unload on her. While she’s being moved, “light DPS” and DoT’s ONLY. The rest of the raid should make a wide arc close to the walls to avoid the tail (or overtaking the tank and getting cleaved). All ranged DPS and healers should be on one side very close to the wall and 1/2 way between the cave where the eggs are and Onyxia.
Phase 1
DPS her hard, but save longer cooldowns until 67%. (1 minute cooldowns are ok to use at the start, but it generally takes less than 2 minutes to get her to 67%). At 67% or 66% call for Heroism and blow DPS cooldowns. At 65% she will turn around and walk back to near the cave opening. During this time she ignores aggro, so the DPS should be hitting her as hard as they can. She then flies into the air and begins phase 2.
Tanks: You should only need 1 tank during this phase, another tank should stay near the dps to pick up whelps should someone get tossed onto the eggs (this should never happen though).
Healers: Heal the main tank, no one else should need it.
Phase 2
Tanks:
Main Tank – It seems to work well for the whelps tank to also be the main tank, AND a paladin. During Phase 2 he will pick up all the whelps and tank them near the middle area.
Main Elite add tank and 2nd Elite add tank – class is not so important, but it would probably be good to have a DK as the 2nd. The Main Elite tank will grab the elites as they come out of the tunnel – this tank should NOT go into the tunnel because they they will get out of healer range.
2nd Elite adds tank should be available to pick up an elite if the DPS is too slow getting the first down, and should be pulling any stray whelps off of healers (DPS with whelps on them should run to the whelps tank). At the end of Phase 2 the 2nd Elite adds tank should pick up any remaining whelps and bring them to the DPS to AoE down.
Healers:
2 on whelps tank / raid
1 on each elites tank
1 for both elites tanks and their healers
The rest on raid heals.
DPS
Melee DPS should focus on the whelps throughout this phase. If there are a lot of melee, you’ll probably want to split them and have some on the elites, but they will take a lot of damage.
Ranged DPS should be on Onyxia as much as possible. Whenever an elite comes out, they should all switch to the elite and bring it down, then go back to Onyxia.
Deep Breath – When she does a deep breath everyone needs to look to see where she is and which why she is facing, then get out of the way! She will go in a straight line across the area, so do not be right below her or in her path.
The switch between phase 2 and 3 is tricky – you want as few adds up as possible for this. At about 42% call and end to all DPS on Onyxia and have them burn down every add possible, then quickly switch back to her to bring her down to 40%.
Phase 3
The whelps tank needs to move into place so they can pick her up when she lands. If there is an elite up, all DPS should focus on that to bring it down, then quickly get into place to the left of Onyxia on the little shelf to avoid being feared into the whelps area (healers should be here also). The 2nd elites tank should be picking up any stray whelps and brining them to the DPS at this point – if need be the main elites add tank can help. It’s important to get rid of those whelps pretty quickly so the DPS can then focus on Onyxia.
Healers should be able to (for the most part) focus on the Main Tank at this point (once the Whelps are down, there shouldn’t be any other damage).
That’s it – finish her off and hand out loot! Here is our World of Logs report from last night’s kill.
Good luck.
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Awesome night of AWESOMENESS!!
Tonight was one of the best raiding nights I’ve had in a while. The new Onyxia instance is up and tonight we did it first on 25 man, then broke into 2 groups for 10 man – my group got it down second try! What a fun fight!
ugh – can’t find the pics – ill fix this tomorrow then
but 2 progression kills in one night!!
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Epic Changes
Wow, this is difficult to write. What do you say about the end of one era and the beginning a new one. Over two years ago Jaded Souls 1.0 ended and Jaded Souls 2.0 was created under the direction of Dancingblade, warrior tank. DB, as he’s affectionately called, took a small family guild and turned it into one of the premier raiding guilds on the server. Ranked in the top 10 if not the top 5 alliance raiding guilds for the past year.
DB and his wife have been plagued by a poor ISP and lousy connections during raids since Ulduar opened it’s portal. Disconnects during crucial pulls and inability to raid with his wife lead to increasing frustrations and dissatisfaction with the game. DB increasingly talked about passing on the leadership, feeling that he wasn’t contributing to the progression of the guild. He would not allow himself to listen to his members, that he WAS contributing, he was the strength and backbone of the guild.
Sunday things came to a head and no one was able to dissuade DB from his last task as guild leader of Jaded Souls. Dancingblade passed on the mantle of leadership to possibly the best candidate ever to stand up and accept.
Sunday, August 2, 2009 my best friend, honorary annoying little brother, and coauthor of this blog, Oakshorn was given the title of Jaded Souls Guild Leader!
Whether this is a blessing or a curse remains to be seen. Hopefully a game he loves hasn’t just turned into another full time job to regret. One thing I can say though is , I KNOW you will do an amazing job and we are all so very proud of you!
Topics: Guilds, Oakshorn | 4 Comments »
Epic Possibilities
In the middle of April Jaded Souls was getting ready for our first glimpse into Ulduar. Unbeknownst to the general rank and file, the officers had spent the prior few weeks trying to make an important decision for the guild. This decision concerned an epic search for a legendary mace, Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings.
According to legend, Val’anyr was created by the Titans themselves and given to Urel Stoneheart, the first of the Earthen Kings. With Val’anyr, Stoneheart created and gave life to the rest of the Earthen Dwarves. This renowned hammer was used during the first war between the Earthen and the Iron Dwarves. During the conflict the mace shattered and the pieces were lost, seemingly for eternity.
With the opening of Ulduar, whispers returned of the shattered fragments of a life giving weapon like no other. Jaded Souls, hearing these rumors, became convinced that we were destined to reunite the fragments and recreate this timeless weapon. This conviction lead to the secret discussions round the officer’s war room. The officers had heard another rumor concerning these fragments. Whoever picked up the fragments could not put them down ’till all were recovered. A decision had to be made as to who would be picking up the pieces and holding them to create the weapon.
Dancingblade held a meeting to announce this decision to the guild. The story was told of the mace and it’s supposed destruction. The story continued of the guild’s obsession with recreating it. Dancingblade prefaced the conclusion with the information about one worthy member touching the fragments. I glanced at Oakshorn, surely my best friend would give away some tiny glimmer of information, but he only looked back, poker faced and shrugging. I silently took stock of the healers in the guild. So many extraordinary physicians, both tenured and new. I waited with anticipation, ready to congratulate Katrista, Wayn or Caylyn on being the chosen healer.
I think you can tell where this story is going, but please just try and imagine my total shock and surprise when Dancingblade announced my name! I am not the cardiac surgeon keeping tanks going long past their supposed demise. I am not the ER specialist throwing the HoTs and chains around and pulling multiple lives out of the fire. What I am is the family physician, jill of all trades yet master of none. My claim to the precious fragments revolved around my minor obsession with the 25 man raids. The decision came down to who would use the hammer with the greatest benefit to the guild. They chose the healer who attended the most past campaigns, the one they felt would bring the mace to the most future battlefields. They chose me.
I am shocked, humbled, embarrassed, overcome, bewildered, proud, uplifted, eager, and so very very excited about the possibilities.
Topics: Asgara, Guilds, Healing, Priest | 3 Comments »
Cynnialunaxx goes down in a blaze of glory
It seems as though the guild has finally outgrown Naxx. This week, after a bit of discussion about the fact that we are getting very few upgrades in there anymore, the decision was made to stop doing weekly Naxx runs. The last few weeks Oaks and I have been alternating Ulduar and Naxx, so that more people can get a look at Ulduar on 10 man and be prepared for the weekend 25’s.
The run, both nights, went smoothly and we one-shot-ed just about everything. Actually, we may have one shot-ed all the bosses. We cleared Naxx up to 4 horsemen Tuesday and then finished on Wednesday, quite early (we did one-shot everything Wednesday). I said a blaze of glory – but really – it was rather uneventful other than the fact that everyone did really well and we got it all done.
I feel a little weird about it to be honest. Naxx was my first Raid-leading experience, and has been the best. I have done Malygos, Sarth and VOA of course, and a small amount into Ulduar, but we had kept the Naxx runs going to get everyone ready for Ulduar. I guess now they are… especially since most of my runs lately have been everyone’s alts. I’ve been staying up stupidly late this week to get a deeper look into Ulduar with DB’s group since they are the progression edge group. Oaks and I haven’t figured out Ulduar yet- we may continue switching weeks to keep his carpel-tunnel burn out to a minimum. However we decide to break it up, I’m certain my raid leading days are far from over.
I started Cynnialunaxx to help out, thinking it was a temporary thing. It turned out to be one of the best experiances I’ve had in the game – becoming a Raid Leader really opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of the game and forced me to learn about more than just druids. Thanks to everyone who ran Naxx with me!
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