Ragnaros Video

Zafiere has come through for and edited a nice video from our last week’s Ragnaros kill. The only small problem is the contrast, which is a bit dark but the music and timing are all working really well.

Enjoy.

Movie Time!

Was high time I got around to making some kill videos from Firelands. My original plan was to take a little break between the two tiers, as our hard mode progression in T11 slowed down towards the end. I think a lot of us felt like a need for a break and truthfully, we also had issues just getting the raids together, due to the summer holidays.

When Firelands was released, I figured I would limit the videos for hard mode kills but a lot of things came in the way, like we continued to have problems forming raids and even more so because more people were taking breaks. Even now, we only have one 10-man team, compared to the two teams we had running before the summer, for which we even had several reserve spots. Now we usually only get the ten or eleven per raid, depending on the day and for a period of two to three weeks, we even had to skip raids due to the lack of attendance.

So I decided, once we kicked off progression again, to start making video of the normal modes as well, although I will not be making a video of each encounter. Tonight, I' have uploaded two of them; Lord Rhyolith and Staghelm. I will try to include at least Baleroc next week. Hopefully, we will also get our Ragnaros kill soon, so we can get on with some hard mode encounters. I cannot express how frustrating it is to hear everybody else talk about them and not be able to go and see for yourself. They sound like a blast for sure.

Anyway, I have already posted the two new videos on my blog and hope you enjoy them. As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Lord Rhyolith Video

This encounter is not as much about being difficult but just being coordinated. We chose to do it with only one tank and the raid, other than those driving Rhyolith, stack close to the entrance, where I also tank all the adds. It worked out really well for us and we have since opted to always solo tank the encounter.

For me, the fight is very unique and a lot of fun. It is certainly very different and something totally new to anything I have seen Blizzard produce so far.

Pro Finlandia vs. Nefarian

Was about time I got around to frapsing one of our Nefarian kills. The funny thing is, I expected this one to be difficult edit but it was probably the easiest in a long time. The soundtrack was just so obvious; I had barely managed to get the video tracks up on my Sony Vegas when I thought, “this is ZZ Top… has got to be.” I added the songs and from the first preview new it was a perfect fit.

Strange how some things just work out :D

Pro Finlandia vs. Halfus Heroic

Finally, it is online; our second hard mode kill of Halfus Wyrmbreaker. It is not immediately evident on the video but it took me several days worth of struggling to make edit, compress, and upload to youtube. Had to give it several tries, due to youtube’s convoluted copyright politics.

But anyway, it is now on and with approved music, which is the main thing. Unfortunately it was not as a clean kill as I would have liked, with me personally messing up the use of some cooldowns at the end. I actually considered abandoning the material and wait for this week’s kill, but at the end decided to screw it and just put it online, so I can give you guys another hard mode boss kill, as soon as possible.

So please enjoy and until next time. High Definition version is ofc available.

Ruby Sanctum Explored

Time to breath a little bit of more life into this blog and no better time than, when you have a lot of thoughts to comment with. I will begin with this look into the finished product that is the Ruby Sanctum, last raid instance to be published in this expansion. I wrote a lot about before during the PTR so I will not bother going through all of that again.

Rather, I decided to provide a look through a new medium that I am exploring, which is video capture. With the LK down on 25-man, we are feeling good about our guild. Makes you comfortable that as a group, you have helped the guild build back up from the deep gutter that we were in, only couple of months ago. With that knowledge giving us a big boost of confidence, we are coming up with a few new projects and my favorite pet is the video capture of our encounters.

It has already started and through a lot of trial and error I have released two video captures. They are both from Ruby Sanctum, as it provided a perfect testing ground for a new editor. The two videos are our first 10-man and 25-man kills. No heroic tries yet, but chances are we will be going for those in the near future. Depends how we divide our raiding time between the ICC hard modes and the Ruby Sanctum.

Personally, I did not find the normal modes that difficult. Naturally, he hits a lot harder on 25-man difficulty and the challenge is primarily on surviving, especially in the Twilight realm where everyone is moving and healers have a lot to deal with. But any decent group will not have a lot trouble with this encounter. As of fact, most of us in the group agreed that the trash mobs in Ruby Sanctum are a lot more annoying than the bosses themselves.

Anyway, here are the links to my two vids, first the 10-man Halion and then the 25-man version. Hope you enjoy.