In this installment we talk about the fall of the Lich King, the removal of limited attempts, and being behind in progression.

Lich King down!

Riot Act killed Arthas in the 25man earlier this week.

We have part 1 and part 2 of the video up on our youtube guild channel. Our log for the kill can be found here.

Very intense fight in 25man and feels very rewarding when you finally kill him. Speaking of intense, the 10man Sindragosa encounter feels less repeatable than than 10man Arthas encounter to us right now, if only slightly. We've 1-shot the Lich King in 10man, but Sindragosa still manages to wipe us ocassionally. Having a bad combo of healer -> tank -> healer for ice blocks in phase 3 while also having healers afflicted with unchained magic can spell disaster rather quickly.

Just last week in one of the 10mans that I was tanking in, I got turned into an ice block while I was tanking her. We happened to do a tank swap right as she was picking a new target to ice block; and although it's a preventable element, it is annoying to have to deal with. I foresee a few nerfs coming her way in the near future.

Limited attempts removed, and not a moment too soon!

As every raider knows, limited attempts for normal modes were removed earlier this week. I wrote an article regarding the need for its removal last week, and I'm glad that Blizzard did something about it 4 days later. Limited attempts really shouldn't have existed for normal modes in the first place, but this change is better than no change at all.

Not having to worry about limited attempts made for a much more enjoyable raiding experience for everyone I know. There was no longer any pressure to run the perfect comp or call a raid early because it wasn't worth under-manning a certain limited attempts boss. I asked several people in more casual guilds how they felt about the change and all of them loved it. Professor Putricide seems to be the current killer for most casually-oriented guilds and the removal of limited attempts made it a much easier fight to deal with.

Behind in progression... with no way to catch up.

According to WoWProgress, access to hard modes cut off at the 48th guild for the first week. The majority of them are stuck at 9/12 bosses killed; leaving up Sindragosa, Professor Putricide, and the Lich King.

Being behind one week of progression will severely hurt any guild not in the current top 48. Not only do most of the top guilds have the extra practice and a completed first round of limited attempts, but they also have a week's worth of gear of a higher tier. Any guild not in the current top 48 will now always be at least one week behind with no way to catch up. Every < 5% wipe on an important boss will be filled with thoughts of "if only we had another week's worth of ilvl 277 gear".

We didn't go the extra distance to level an alt raid like Paragon did, nor did we recruit someone that had killed the Lich King in another guild so that they could unlock it for us like Premonition did. That left us in the same boat as every other guild not in the fortunate top 48, and our formal raiding week ended within 2 short days. Being able to finally start hard modes this week will be a breath of fresh air.

I'll leave you all with 2 very valuable tips.

Tip 1: Spec for the hardest content you're on. Don't just assume that a cookie-cutter spec is best for everything. If you are inclined (and can afford it!) then gear/gem for the content also.

Tip 2: If you have terrible players in your guild that you don't want to kick out, there is one very simple but effective solution:
Lock them in a room with only bread, water, and Ikaruga.

Previous: Road to Arthas: Chapter 5