I just logged out from spending my first full day on Warlords of Draenor beta and let me tell you a bit about what I did. I had the beta here for a couple of days, and I've logged on and looked around a bit but hadn't done very much beyond setting up my bars the way I wanted.

The very first thing today was to run a dungeon with Craeg. He had been just dying waiting for someone to get on the beta he could run stuff with. So I made a level 100 paladin and setup my holy setup. From talents to glyphs to macros. I got myself ready for the changes. We queued up for all of the dungeons and with me being a healer it took no time at all to get in. We got a dungeon already in progress with the first boss down. Craeg was feral druid, I holy pally, our tank was a paladin, we had a few dps as the dungeon went on, and they were not worth mentioning really. The dungeon we found ourselves in was Grimrail Depot. A moving train, very tight quarters, close walls, and not a lot of room to get out of mechanics at times. We had a few struggles with randoms not picking up on the mehcanics very quickly. But our tank had patience and I was just healing my ass off trying to keep everyone afloat (Holy Pally guide and thoughts to come at a later date) We finished up and enjoyed our loot. 

Then I coppied over Elapsed as level 90 over to the "leveling realm". Once coppied, bars setup, and UI configured I started with the Blasted Lands intro quests. They were straight forward and for the most part your standard "Kill x targets, loot y things, take them to z person." It told a story that I wont spoil here, but it's the full into into getting to Draenor. The Blasted Lands reminded me a lot of what they did to the Barrens for the  Vol'jin story arc of MoP. It's not quite as involved but there's a ton of shit going down.

Upon completion of those quests I found myself entering The Dark Portal. This was the biggest nostalgia trip I've had in AGES. Something about how they made the other side look and feel reminded me EXACTLY of when I did this back for the launch of The Burning Crusade. I proceeded on to do some phased solo quests (not sure if you can group for them) But this phasing from the rest of the worl immersed me into the story and the world so much. I found myself fighting aside badass lore heroes as they assaulted the other side of The Dark Portal. The quests themselves had some nuance to them. There were the new "Extra Action Button" quests and even a vehicle quest or two that really were quite fun.

Once you complete that "phased" quest line, you find yourself in Shadowmoon Valley. The very first quest line sets up your Garrison. The Garrison seems to be quite quest-centric and if you want to quest beyond that point, you'll be required to go back to your Garrison from time to time (or at least create it.) This is another in the long line of things Blizz changed their minds about since Blizzcon '13. But I'm 100% OK with it! The Garrison is fun, a little home away from the grind, and you even get a special Garrison Hearth (20 min CD.) You send off "follower" NPCs to do quests for you, they take some time and trying to find the right follower for the right quest is important to it's success chance. The items they come back with were nothing compared to my Siege of Orgrimmar raid gear, but they vendored nicely.

In Shadowmoon Valley I found all sorts of neat things to do. From your basic pick up a bunch of quests for a spot and do them, to rares that all drop 516 ilvl blues, to even new "Bonus Objective Quests" that pepper the area. The "Bonus Objectives" are your standard kill X things, pickup Y things, quest that were used to. They show up in your quest tracker the moment you enter their zone. They give over 50g each and a good chunk of XP. You only need go slightly out of your way from the other quests to do them and are well worth the effort.

I leveled twice today (I coppied over Elapsed.) At 92 I got my first "Draenor Perk." For those not in the "know" these are enhancements to some of your current arsenal of spells that you will get every other level. Every spec has 5 Draenor Perks, and you earn them in a random order. My first ret perk was to reduce the CD on Hand of Sacriffice by 30 seconds. By no means a game breaking ability, nor even one I'll use while questing, but a cool way to break up the leveling none the less and make you feel as though you've accomplished something along the way.

The mount I'm on is the new Ravager Mount from the store
Lastly I found and ran into one of the new "Rare mounts." Rare Mounts require you to have a certain level Stables in your garrison to tame. The one I found was named Shinri, and was pretty fast! Shinri is a Ghostly Talbuk, and the new model their using looks very cool and noble. I'm disheartened to know that you have to have a Stables for this. As you will be taking up 1 large plot just to have that ability. I suppose that once you have them all, you can replace the plot and get a new building. That will keep you working in your garrison to be sure. And also headed out for whatever the best way possible at 100 is to get garrison supplies.

I will be back as I find more interesting things to report on in the WoD Beta, if you have any requests let me know. I'll be more than happy to try and get any info from the beta I can.

Please click HERE to check out our dungeon guides/experiences from Beta.

Well Ladies, Gentlemen, and Foresight…it’s been almost a year and a half since I took over as guild leader, and we’ve done quite a lot with that time. Let’s recap everything that’s taken place for those of you who aren’t playing.

Raids 

Patches 5.0-5.1 

• Man Hug had an incredibly amazing (if not rocky at times) launch! We teamed up with <Rise of The Darkside> (Hail Darkside!) early on to fill our ranks and took a rag tag group into the first 25 man raid <Downfall> had seen in a couple of years. Then we went on to clear 9/16 bosses before The Thunder King reared his ugly head.

• PMS continued on as a 10 man raid from Cata and picked up a couple more people along the way. We lost a ginger during mid-Normals due to work, but then be-friended a kindly Dragon along the way. At the time breathed he fire and ice, but went on to bring the word of the light back in full force. As a raid we cleared all 16/16 Normal and got 3/16 Heroic. A slow start, but a good one.

Patches 5.2-5.3 

• Man Hug breached the walls of the Thunder King’s Palace and went for his heart! And we accomplished exactly that! Early on after our first couple of kills of Jin’rokh The Breaker (First boss), Man Hug had a bit of a problem shoring up its ranks. Grasen, Threerick and Atar all went on a hardcore recruitment spree, and we brought in a TON of raiders into the guild. Some stayed, some left, and some just quit or vanished. But, the ranks were full and Man Hug was raiding again, scoring its LEGENDARY first kill of Horridon. Then, Man Hug faced a trial. Eleven bosses into the raid, our illustrious Raid Leader Atar had to take a step back from WoW to coach a football team. Jobs stepped up, got promoted to the rank of Officer and led Man Hug to its first kill of The Thunder King (2 shot it that night), and for its first time, fully cleared Normal ahead of the curve (a.k.a. before the next tier came out).

• PMS cleared Normal very early in May 2012, and went on to clear 4/13 Heroic bosses. We saw some epic fights and got some epic loots (some of which is still used today -_- ).

• Raid Galaga joined <Downfall> after searching for a place to call home, and we gave them and their friends more than that. They’re now part of the crazy <Downfall> family. In Throne Of Thunder they cleared 9/12 in Normal clearing up to Iron Qon!

Patch 5.4 - now 

• Man Hug went into the Siege of Orgrimmar (SoO) with a plan, a new focus from clearing the previous tier, and an orc to kill. In the first night we killed 2 bosses; 12 days later the next 2 bosses died in a single night. Then real life reared its ugly head for me and I took a step back from helping manage the points and leading. Jobs got Sassyßrat as an officer to help pick up the slack that I had left. Man Hug then went on to fully clear SoO ahead of the curve!

• On October 29th, 2013, PMS killed Normal Garrosh – a server first for Gorgonnash. We scored 4 achievements, got a mount, and a title. As of this writing, we are 8/14 Heroic and we have our sights on Garrosh before we see the end of the Xpac.

• Galaga is doing amazing. They’re working on their first kill of Garrosh are currently 13/14 Normal.

• A new Alt raid from Man Hug formed and named themselves The Implication. They cleared SoO on Normal and are aiming to move onto Heroics. (More info further in) 

And that catches you up for how the raids have fared thus far. I’m proud of every boss the raids have killed. You guys and gals continue to astonish and amaze with your determination and prowess when it comes to bringing together groups of friends and family.

Man Hug as a raid 

As you’ve read above, Man Hug as a 25 man (the only one on the server) has done what several told us was impossible. It has far exceeded my expectations of what 25 man raiding can accomplish in this LFR/10 man world we have now. Anyone that has been a part, or continues to be a part of this, deserves a big pat on the back and should feel damned proud of your accomplishments. As we approach the end of MoP, we start to see (as all raids do) drops in attendance and people falling out. Those people set a goal, they accomplished it, and now it’s time to move on to the next goal they have. No one doing this should be seen in any other light than friend and guildy. We’ve all made sacrifices to raid the way we have, and there comes a tipping point when the other goals outweigh the possible raid goals. I’m not saying everyone will experience this, but many will and it should not be looked down upon. Man Hug is starting to see this happen now that Garrosh has died. People have either stuck around longer than they wanted because they felt an obligation to the raid and the guild, or as I stated, they have just achieved what they came to do.

On Monday, January 13th, there was an initial vote about the 25 man continuing into Heroic SoO, and 5 voted against. While 20% of the raid seems like a small margin, think of trying to fill those spots with undergeared or underperforming raiders that need to be carried and continuing into Heroics. That can also mean running Normals several more times to try and gear those replacements up. After examining the list and discussing it, Jobs decided to hold another couple of polls. On the following Wednesday, January 15th, two polls were held live during the Man Hug raid time (servers were down due to DDOS). The first poll asked how many wanted to continue the 25 man format, and 12 voted against. The second poll asked how many would raid in a 10 man if given the opportunity, and a whopping 21 of you said yes. By the numbers, that’s 1 too many for two 10 man raids. Almost perfection in my books, as long as the comps work and there are enough “support” members (tanks and healers).

The Implication

As mentioned above in the raid’s accomplishments, a new raid formed in SoO comprised mostly of alts from the 25 man. The Implication is continuing on with SoO now that Man Hug is no longer going to raid. This raid, led by Trazy, Shatner, and Painhax, will be pushing Heroics and looking to score themselves a Heroic Garrosh kill before WoD. Their roster is not 100% finalized, so talk to them about what they need to fill their ranks.

Elapsed Flexes

For anyone who really wants that social aspect of raiding with a big group and doesn’t care about Heroics, My Flex continues to run strong on Saturdays 6pm PST (Man Hug’s normal start time) till 9pm. This week we cleared wings 2-4 in two and a half hours, so next week we aim to clear all 4 wings! We often field ~20 raiders but have had room for 2-7 raiders (as long as we have the healers for it).

A Call To Arms! 

The officers are looking for someone from Man Hug to step up and lead another 10 man! For obvious reasons neither Jobs nor myself can just point at a person and say, congrats you’re leading a 10 man raid! We need someone who WANTS to raid and wants to raid enough that they will lead and organize the raid. Reply below if that is you! We want another 10 man to thrive; we want people to stay on and active! But we cannot do that without you!

Badpenny promoted to officer!!! 

At the end of our officer meeting on Thursday, January 16th, a vote came to the officers. There has been a guild member and raid leader who has stood out as a true leader in the guild. Badpenny has led Galaga, and will continue to lead a raid into WoD (more on that as xpac info arises). Congratulations to Penny and Galaga on their accomplishments. You’ve become amazing members of our family and were so happy you joined us. You now have a strong voice in the officer ranks. I want to see more of you all online as often as possible!

Baby News 

Finally, it seems with every passing year there’s new <Downfall> babies.  You guys have proven that you all enjoy the hell out of sex, and that’s great.

• On April 11th, 2013, Samantha Reed was born to Tim (Mehguy) and Candice (Firekeeper)
• Lisa (Elektraqt) and Matt (Lucidream) are expecting their first on February 20th, 2014
• Tom (Katzeus) and Amanda (Meowia) are expecting sometime in June 2014
• And, at the officer meeting we got the amazing news that Austin’s (Atar) wife is pregnant!!!!

Congratulations to all of you, you’re raising the next generation of <Downfall>er’s. Make them gamers, and make them nerdy!

(If I left anyone out, which is possible please let me know and I will update this)

Downfall, you’re the best of communities to be in. I always brag about the community I lead to others who don’t play the game. I will continue to lead the guild into WoD and in the future. In the coming months you’ll see my plans and other’s plans to raid in WoD, and even leveling strategies as we find out more from Blizz. Until then, keep raiding to your fullest, keep running scenarios, keep running arenas and BGs together, and keep having a good time.

P.S. Mythic Raid details will be posted soon as we ourselves get more info.

(title continued) And Why you shouldn't bitch about the lack of alliance just yet!

So Tuesday (today) we got connected to Warsong and Balnazzar, and I saw in guild and trade this "Fuck are we connected at all? there's nobody here!" and sentiments of the like.

Well I hate to break it to you, but we did. So let me spell out how this nonsense was setup and how it works (and why were lucky to have been connected)

For clarity before the explanation allow me to remind you Gorg was considered Medium Pop and we are actively (meaning people who still actively play not just all level 90s) 90% Alliance

How It Works!

Blizzard knew that the non-high pop realms were hurting for raiders, economy, and organised PvP. They set out to connect realms, revive populations, and fix (when possible) server imbalances. 

Warsong and Balnazzar (some great low-med pop Horde realms) were connected awhile ago. We were connected to them today. Our realm, while still being actively medium population is now quite balanced as far as factions are concerned.

This is only a first connection for us, and many of the older CRs are now 4-5 realms connected. We should still expect to see others connected to us! And also hope for more alliance people!

I for one am quite happy with todays connection, we have many recruitment possibilities from people who had no hope of finding a raiding guild, people who are struggling to fill their 10 mans, and even a couple who have suceeded and are raiding. Our AH will have some more warm bodies to buy and sell, and pugging for things (at least during prime time) wont be quite as difficult.

I've spoken to many very nice people from our new realm, and got some insights for you. 

They don't feel they have many "raid ready" people (they usually mean gear wise)

The horde don't gank much, if at all and are generally quite pleasant

They're (for the most part) very happy to see Gorg and all of us connect with them

So go out, be friendly, make new friends. Find people who WANT to raid or PvP with us and have them sign up on the site. 

Oh and for you people still bitching about this, Stuff it! and have some patience to see what comes our way with the next connection (whenever that may be)

MYTHIC Sounds amazing, or I thought so when I just heard it! Makes me want to be in a Mythic raid, Fuck you heroics! You're for the weak!

well... let's get passed that and realize something, If the raiding tiers were implimented today, this is how they would look. Remember when I say "Flex" below, dont think of the 10-25 player nonsense, think of the difficulty.

LFR - > LFR

Flex - > Normal

Normal - > Heroic

Heroic - > Mythic

So it's a re-naming to start.... Mythic difficulty will be EXACTLY THE SAME as heroic currently.... So it's a cool name. Why am I complaining about a re-name? Well that's not all they did, Let's look below at my next list and when I say "Flex" this time, I refer to how many players can come (10-25)

LFR = Flex

Normal = Flex

Heroic = Flex

Mythic = 20 man

"But Elapsed! Are you saying a 25 man would have to sideline 5 people every week? and a 10 man would have to recruit 10 more raiders and lose out on their core group?"

Yes that's exactly what I'm fucking saying.

The way I see Mythic working to the fullest is this, Run a 22-25 man for normal/heroic (shouldn't take longer than normal progression now) and then sideline 2-5 people to run Mythic. Have them geared from running heroic and ready to fill in at any given time... even take over as a main. That leaves this to an Alt game imho. People will need to have 2 raids once the Mythic group starts working on them. So they can keep getting "heroic" gear and be ready to pop into Mythic right away.

FYI if you didn't catch on, I'm not looking at this from a let's all raid and have fun perspective, I'm looking at this from a progression raid style. And you can call it Elitist if you want, but it's how a great deal of us really raid. This is true of any of <Downfall>'s current raids, and certainly of the ones of the past.

So what does a guild like us do? Beats the fuck out of me.... but I'm not happy that I can't just keep close to my 10 man now heroic raid, and have a 25 man to have a "social" interaction with flex.

You can find DOZENS of posts on mmo-champ and the wow forums about this, you will see flaming on both sides. a majority of it seems to be the standard faire of forum trolls and assholes, and some is people arguing about difficult of logistics vs difficulty of content.

Some have said, if you don't want to raid on the same level as a Mythic raid, you don't deserve Mythic gear. But I want to raid on a Mythic level, but with 10 people, so why should I (and the GREAT MAJORITY OF WOW RAIDERS) be told "get 10 more, or fuck off in "heroic""

Well this comes to a change that we've been dealing with since the tail end of Wrath, Having only 1 damned lockout for raiding weekly. You can run 10 man normal or heroic, or 25 normal or heroic. Sure there's a little more nuance to it, but thats the general logic. They/we have compained about being forced to only do 1 raid a week with our mains and if we want to raid in another raid we have to play an alt. This is what lead to the death of 25 mans in Cata (along with the thin content/story) and the death of a lot of raids/guilds in general. Lack of choice!

 This adds that "2nd" lockout again for Heroic raiders. They/we can run in the guilds 25man "Heroic" and still run our 20 man Mythic every week. Theyre trying to please (and I'm sorry but I'm well aware of my role here) the Minority of wow subscribers, while still letting the majority feel "Epic" for their progress.

My 2 cents, if you didn't gather, I'm not a fan of the current plans for it, but I appreciate what theyre trying to do for someone like me. I hope they can be a bit more...... for lack of a better word Flexible with the raiders required. Also I hope for more answers tomorrow at the Q&A. I will be adding/modifying/correcting anything here as I find out news tomorrow.

*Addition*

PMS 2.0 is happening, like I've posted below requirements are strict and a call back to TBC/Wrath rules for hardcore raiding
 

• missing only 1 night out of a month (maybe 2 or 3 but thats pushing it)
• picking a class and spec before launch and sticking with it through the whole expansion (this is hard due to balancing but remember with 20 people, you may be the only Balance Druid or Shadow priest, but you bring CDs and buffs to the raid that others might not. Also if you watch the Fatboss video I linked below (thanks Lumi for that) you can see how they may hopefully bring back class specific mechanics (think Razuvious from Naxx with the Mind Control adds). We wont be able to really switch peoples mains unless they are FULLY heroic gear and bring something to the raid that were sorely lacking.
• Ready to accept possibly a loot counsil (other loot options are being fully discussed and this is not even close to 100% but it's an idea that's being thrown around to ensure that the raids gear is balanced properly) PMS raiders are all very cordial when it comes to loot and we generally pass gear to those who will get better upgrades out of it, if we can do that system for Mythic... by all fucking means we will
• Understanding that you may be our 2-5 fill ins that we have set aside (another system that is being discussed by officers involved)
• Being raid ready in 2-3 weeks (possibly running "normal" fully and having raid gear from it) after launch. I mean full epics, fully enchanted/gemmed, and full boss understanding for whatever comes our way (I will be putting together a normal run as soon as I can get fully geared in heroic dungeon shit and crafted if there is enough people geared)

Sign-ups will start in Jan, I appreciate all of the "I'll Join!" posts that were getting and the concerns with the time and day, As I've posted, we have people in our raid who we wont abandon for this. These raiders are, in my mind, crucial to this raid's success. In short our time and days will be as follows

Mon/Tue/Wed and either 9-12 or 9:30-12:30 server (with the understanding that we may have to switch that half hour mid tier or mid xpac)

Right now from my general list, I'm looking for a monk or druid healer, and Various DPS. As I've said previously we are going to be very Elitist about our guidelines for picking raiders, please try not to take offense if we don't pick you. It's just how these types of raid form.

Ok yeah that's a badass picture from WoWJuju for the next patch and I couldn't resist to have it top my blog for this! This is my notes on 5.4 and what you should know for Downfall and for Raiding!

Time

Time is a wonderful thing, especially when you know how much you have to work on shit before all the new stuff goes live. From a recent tweet by one of the blizz guys the pvp season will end on August 27th. Now with this came a ton of speculation of past patches. What I can say without a doubt is this, 5.4 will happen on or after the 27th of August. Some say that day, some say the next week, but either way that gives you a minimum time frame to consider what you will need to be prepared for 5.4!

Wrathion and my damned legendary cloak

For those of us fortunate enough with RNG luck we've been pushing the legendary quest line fairly smoothly and quickly, for those who are less fortunate it's been a grind of 1 "coin" a week, and I'm sorry. In 5.4 those beautiful ilvl 600 cloaks we got will get a new color and a proc added to them (just do a google search for Legendary cloak wow and I'm sure you can find what yours will do for your spec) But to get this lovely shade of orange you must do Wrathion a couple of favors (god this guy asks a lot of us!) This time around he wants Timeless coins and for us to defeat the celstial guardians of pandaria in group combat.

Sadly I can't get exact for you here but he will either want, 50, 100, 2500, or 5000 Timeless coins to continue. (wow head quest says 5000 but it was 2500 on PTR and a couple of data mines put it at either 50 or 100 so who the fuck really knows right now) Good thing you get like 200 from the first two quests on the isle, and you can get a ton from killing things and exploring.

Killing the celestials will take a group but it will be faction tagged as well, so as long as a group is killing one of them you should definately tag it and try to help them (or join forming groups etc etc) Each celestial can only be faught individually, below I have some notes from a commenter on what the abilities are like.

Yu'lon (Dragon)

Frontal fire breath with a stacking +5% fire damage taken

random fire zones spawned on the raid, these can overlap meaning that will kill the person standing them in ~2s

Sartharion style wave that covers the entire area with the exception of a single gap

Chi-Ji (Crane)

Fire tornados around the arena

Will place a yellow circle and begin to AoE blast, anyone not in the circle will die

spawn allot of little cranes that slowly move away from the boss doing a mini aoe blast to anyone in melee range

Xuen (Tiger)

Tank stacking(?) -10% armor debuff

He'll trow balls at the raid damaging anyone in the impact area (probably dodgable)

[Unavoidable lightning AoE on the raid]

Niuzao (Ox) (can't say I fully understood this one)

Strong Hellfire like AoE

Stacking buff to stamina (maybe just on tank spec people) which might indicate a gatekeeper like mecanic

Will run around wile doing it's Hellfire like AoE"

All in all it's reported that getting the upgrade takes 1-2 hours on the isle. Which leads to the 5th raid boss on the isle... Have 500 Valor ready for this cloak it may or may not keep your 2/2 upgrade but it WILL be upgradable

Ordos Fire God! (Requires legendary cloak!)

This is our new Nalak, But there's a twist! To fight him EVERYONE NEEDS THEIR LEGENDARY CLOAKS. It's a "gating" mechanism. So you need to do the above questing from wrathion to proceed. I'm not posting a strat here (partially because I've yet to look at one) But we can expect him to be difficult at the start until we work out our shit.

*EDIT* Aeolyn has commented that the legendary cloak is only required on one of your characters, there is an account flag that will allow you to cross to his zone.

 First 4 Bosses of SoO

I'm not going to embed the videos but I will link here the first four bosses in preview form from IcyVeins. Over the next week we will be having the likes of Mehguy, Lumi, Jobs, Turth, and Myself compiling full blown strats for these bosses. Please watch these so you get a basic idea of what we face.

Addition: Mehguy has started compiling the SoO in The Downfall Raid Guides and the first 4 bosses will be up very shortly (as of writing this he's working on Sha of Pride) 

Immerseus

Fallen Protectors

Norushen

Sha of Pride

Please remember these videos are simply early looks on the PTR and not represenative of how we will handle things. Keep an eye on the Tracker over the next week to see the strats go up as we get them!

Boss Mods!

Everytime we get ourselves a new Raid patch it takes a bit of time for DBM and BigWigs to catch up fully with the timing and mechanics of each fight. We only recently got smart marking on Horridon and Tortos and SoO will be no exception to that rule! So it is BEST TO HAVE ALPHA or BETA builds to get the latest in timer updates. Now there is always some risk that the addon wont work with both of those but we will be playing it by ear and if updates are needed Kaluu and I will be on the edge of our seats reading the patch notes regarding them. But on patch day if you are raiding, Get the latest to the minute version of DBM or BigWigs (I know a couple of you use the wigs) ALPHA BUILDS ARE UPDATED AS OFTEN AS TWICE AN HOUR SO BE SURE AND UPDATE JUST BEFORE RAID

DBM's Site (on the right you will see the quick download links both release and Alpha)

BigWigs Files (it will be organised by newest first, just get the top one unless otherwise instructed for stability)

Oh and a side note, I'm not looking to debate the pros and cons of getting a alpha build of one of these. For those who think they "know better" you go ahead and do what you see fit. But in the last 4 raid releases I've been a part of I've only had ONE build of DBM alpha not work right. They fixed it in 10 minutes and everything was Kosher. Please just keep your opinions to yourself regarding this.

EPGP (a.k.a. loot points)

As you may or may not know I've been decaying points by a % every week since we first cleared MSV. This maintains the order of people but keeps the numbers to a minimum. This will continue with SoO and has worked great!

But for SoO you are not going to bring all of your points with you. I'm going to reset points back down for all raiders to 10k EP and no GP. The reasoning is this, It's a new raid, new efforts will be put towards new gear and new bosses. We need a fresh start on points for that. Don't see this as us forgetting who has been there the whole time or forgetting who has put in the most work. This will actually make it so the lucky few who have gotten all the gear they needed early wont have an unfair advantage going into the new instance. I'm excited for this as should you be.

Flex Raiding

BIG RULES

Flex raid is not a replacement for Man Hug or PMS or Galaga. You can take your character to a flex and then to a normal/heroic raid in the same week as they don't share a lockout.

DO NOT BURN YOURSELF OUT! We need you in your main raids, if this much "organised" raiding is too much for you then for fuck sake don't do it. You can get your normal LFR gear and do just fine in Normal.

THE CURRENT RAID LEADER IS YOUR LEADER! Even though it's not your main raid doesn't mean you can fuck around like in LFR or tell people off. You follow what your raid leaders say and pay attention.

Over at /node/11085 I made a blog about the weekend Flex Raid I will host, if all goes well it will serve as a way for all of us to get loot without having to suffer through LFR. Mine will be truly flexible in who we can and will bring week to week and weather or not you can bring an alt. It all depends on who we get week to week. Since I've seen very little opposition or discussion re: the time and day of the raid. The probable raid time will be

Saturday 6-9 pm and then again possible Sunday should we be in need of another day (probably afternoon but we could put it to a vote.

Alternatively Turth is putting together an Objective Flex. The idea behind this is to keep the same people week to week and make the goal getting the Meta achievement. He's talked to many of us regarding it and it sounds like a great plan. His times are 6pm server until 10 server on I think Thursday Nights to avoid conflicts with main raids. This is a HARDCORE group! If you join and raid with them remember that hardcore groups will tell you what you did wrong and often don't give a damn about your feelings. Don't come crying to an officer if this happens. We will remind you, you've been warned!

And that's all that is important regarding raids in 5.4. Head over to MMO-Champ, Wowhead, Or IcyViens for more info regarding the patch and your class, or pet tournaments or w/e it is you like to do.

TL:DR None, read the fucking thing

With 5.4 just around the corner (I hope no sooner than Sept personally) The question comes to will my LFR runs come back?

No! I hate LFR with a passion and hate that I've felt forced to run it just for gear opportunity.

Flex raids will be the new thing in 5.4 and I really feel we can replace our LFR weekly with a Flex Raid run. Not only can we get our gear, but we get to make it a guild run event that we fully control! No more will we deal with people that do not speak english or abide by our rules (i.e. Tortos kicking shells)

So I want to discuss when we will be running this flex raid of SoO. I would love to get it in on the weekend so that we can include a lot of people, Also I want to open this door to people who don't raid with the main raids, be more inclusive, that is what flex is for after all! 

So I propose saturday afternoon or evening to run our Flex SoO. Only one night (unless we decide that a sunday run is needed but I hope it isn't) I want to consider EST and CST time zones for this so that we can include our increasing eastern and central guild-mates. 

MAJOR POINT: THIS IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR 25 MAN HUG! This is a replacement for LFR runs so we can have a bit more fun and as I said above have more control over the raid environment. 

What we need are 2 tanks who can reliably be there every week and some healers (not sure on that number yet but assuming 6 like normal if we get a full 25)

My proposal (incredibly subject to change and will be updated as more information arises)

Saturday 6-9pm Server time with a possibility for Sunday afternoon (we don't want that time to interfere with Raid Galaga)

TLDR: Just read the damned thing