Sorry for the very late notice.

Tonights Sunday night Cross-Server Raid into Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest keep is canceled.

The Cub has been very sick this weekend, and while he is resting and has the right medicine now, it’s been a case of very long nights, and very high temperatures. We’re all now in vegetable mode. And the Cub doesn’t feel up to playing.

He seems to have no trouble sitting on the chair next to me watching back-to-back streaming episodes of Americas Funniest Home Videos on Netflix, though.

I guess if you’re nine, you can never have enough funny cats, peeing babies and groin shots.

Sigh.

By the way, the show has taught him that the proper name is the groin, not the balls, and not the “front tushie”.

Anyway, we’ll all be fine, but tired, sick and wiped out.

See you all next week!

Last Sunday, I was planning on Sunwell Plateau. It sounded like a fun time for an evening, that place was brutal back in the day, but we ought to have been able to get it done in two hours, right?

Yeah.

Thirty minutes into the raid night, and it’s all over.

Well, shoot.

Hey, hows about we go roflstomp through Black Temple?

Okay, that stretched the night out to an hour and a half.

It looks to me like Burning Crusade raids are now 5 mans, easy five mans. That is, if you want things to live long enough for a Warlock to have a chance to enslave something. Blink and you WILL miss the content if you go with more folks.

So, I vastly overestimated how long those would take.

I have a new plan.

Next Sunday… we’re going to plan on starting at Serpentshrine Cavern and then flying due North to Tempest Keep.

Dual Clear, and if time allows we’ve got Gruul’s Lair close by (which takes longer to reach than to run), and even Magtheridon’s Lair if somehow we have THAT much time left.

This time, I will NOT be… unprepared.

That phrase is so over used, I’m starting to expect a big stompy foot coming down when I write it, a la Monty Python.

It’s a fair cop.

Reminder – go to Darkmoon Fair to get your free 5 profession points!

I know I just posted about cross-realm last night, but I wanted to talka bout what my goals are and what I hope to see happen over the course of the next several months.

The new expansion brought with it new raids, factions, a new continent and a frenetic feel of activity. There is just a… well, my apologies to the Klaxxi but it brought with it a buzz that has me feeling that it’s all go go go, so much to do and there is more coming down the tunnel at a breakneck pace.

I know that there is typically three or four months between the announcement of a patch and the patch releasing, but even knowing that and KNOWING that everyone talking like patch 5.1 is ‘imminent’ is wrong doesn’t stop that feeling. Move forward, get things done because the next phase is right around the corner.

That’s all well and good, I’m glad of the vast quantity of things to do in the game.

What I’d like to do though, really like to set as a goal, is to complete all of the raids in the game, every last one of them, with friends.

We’re doing Sunwell Plateau next Sunday, but it’s not really my goal to hop around out of order like that. I wanted to do that one once quick, simply because Alex saw the artwork and took the virtual tour when we did the Magister’s Terrace instance, and he’s been hot to see the actual raid ever since.

What I’d like to do is pick a different raid each Sunday, and do them in order.

As a group the BBB Cross-server folks have killed the Twin Emperors in AQ40, so I see that as a starting point. From there, I’d like to go in order through all of the Burning Crusade raids whose only accomplishments are for final completion.

Some of them certainly don’t take very long, so I’m thinking Gruul’s Lair and Magtheridon’s Lair can be done in the same night.

I’m also thinking that, for something like Karazhan, we could split up into two teams all in one ventrilo channel, and compete on speed kills to see who downs the last boss first. Okay, three teams depending on how many were to sign up. Just for fun, no other reason.

But that’s my long term goal in the game right now. I want to progress in sequence through all the raids in the game, at least once, and eventually do all of the Naxxramas 25 heroic achieves, and then the Ulduar 25 heroic achieves, and from there possibly move on to Cataclysm raids.

Of course, by then my head might have exploded.

I’ll admit it, I’m really excited at some of them, like Serpentshrine Cavern and Black Temple and the Battle for Mount Hyjal. It’s been a real long time. But it makes sense to me to take it one step at a time.

I hope you’ll be able to join me!

Next Sunday evening November 4th, we’re moving on to a new raid… the Sunwell!

Sunwell Plateau is a 25 person raid tuned for level 70 players located on the Isle of Quel’danas. It was the last raid implemented in Burning Crusade, the most powerful (the drops were of more power than the Black Temple) and has the chance to drop a legendary, the bow Thor’idal the Stars Fury.

Sunwell Plateau is considered able to be cleared by a two person team of level 85 players.

However… I ain’t looking for two peeps. I’m looking for twenty-five.

Twenty-five insane souls willing to crash the Sunwell and have a lighthearted time while doing it.

You don’t have to be a part of a big team to do the raid, so if all you want is a clear and an achieve, you can certainly accomplish your goal with a 5 person group of regular composition any time you’d like.

But if you’d like to join me, next Sunday from 6 PM to 8 PM central time is when we’ll be going.

As usual, the only requirement to take part is that you be level appropriate or higher and either on my friends list (and same Alliance faction) or friends with someone who already is.

At 15 minutes ’til 6, I’ll be on and send out the broadcast to whisper me for an invite… so if you’re late, you might miss out.

Oh, and on a side note… Thor’idal will be handled like any other loot in these old raids. Roll Need if you are a Hunter and don’t have it, Greed if you don’t want it. That’s how we’ve been handling all transmog-appropriate gear, Need if you want it for your set otherwise Greed it.

Yes, I’ll be going on my Hunter, and no, Thor’idal is not reserved.

Tomorrow night, planning on going into ICC for a pure heroic-mode blowout.

Speed kills, my friends. Just how fast speed kills remains to be seen.

What I’d like to do is change the start time to one hour earlier than normal, from 7 PM to 6 PM, Central time.

I say again, start time for ICC heroic destruction is 6 PM Central time.

The reason is simple; if we go at 7, Alex can’t finish the run. Selfish, I know, but he was really unhappy he wasn’t allowed to stay up to kill the Lich King on our last one. Sunday night is a school night, and we’ve got a regular schedule for school nights, so he is done playing by 8 PM.

So, if you’d like to do ICC heroic with us Sunday night, be on and ready to rock at 6 PM Central, and of course already be on my friends list.. or friends with someone who is.

Oh, and as a reminder to the folks from last time… all we were missing was Been Waiting a Long Time on the Lich King kill, so let’s see if we can knock that out for the few folks that still needed it.

See you there!