Project Lore

Yesterday in 10-mans, we managed to clear all of Trial of the Crusader and then managed to get the tribute chest in Trial of the Grand Crusader on the last possible try. Now that we have some real experience clearing the 10-man version of ToC, tonight The Totally Rad Guild will be trying the 25-man version of the instance tonight... right now! Once we get through Anub'arak (as we did last week), we will be starting on hard modes of the encounters. With just 50 wipes per week to use on the Trial of the Grand Crusader, we'll have some extra stress put on each of our raiders. It will be a lot of fun to see the differences between 10-man and 25-man. Tomorrow at the same times (7pm PDT/10pm EDT), we'll be continuing our raids, so come back then to see what we have in store next. As usual, I'll be in the USTREAM chat and I'll try to answer any questions that come up whenever I can. The streamed video and chat are embedded below, so come in, join the chat, and check it out. You can also follow Project Lore on twitter or check out our USTREAM channel to find out more! Also, if you happen to miss the stream, there should be some archived videos embedded below!

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Last night, we managed to clear all of Trial of the Crusader and then managed to get up to the Twin Valkyrs before internet problems cut that short. Now that we have some experience in the 10-man version of ToC, tonight The Totally Rad Guild will be trying the 25-man version of the instance tonight starting at 7pm PDT/10pm EDT. Once we get through Anub'arak, we will be starting on hard modes of the encounters. With just 50 wipes per week to use on the Trial of the Grand Crusader, we'll have some extra stress put on each of our raiders. It will be a lot of fun to see the differences between 10-man and 25-man. Tomorrow at the same times (7pm PDT/10pm EDT), we'll be continuing our raids, so come back then to see what we have in store next. As usual, I'll be in the USTREAM chat and I'll try to answer any questions that come up whenever I can. The streamed video and chat are embedded below, so come in, join the chat, and check it out. You can also follow Project Lore on twitter or check out our USTREAM channel to find out more! Also, if you happen to miss the stream, there should be some archived videos embedded below!

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With the entirety of Trial of the Crusader finally unlocked, The Totally Rad Guild will be trying the 10-man version of the instance tonight starting in about an hour at  7pm PDT/10pm EDT. Once we get through Anub'arak, we will be starting on hard modes of the encounters. With just 50 wipes per week to use on the Trial of the Grand Crusader, some Blizzard employees doubt the abilities of raiders to complete the instance in its first week of being available. We'll have to see how far we are able to get. I, for one, can't wait to run into some actually difficult content outside of Ulduar! Tomorrow at the same times (7pm PDT/10pm EDT), we'll be running through the 25-man version of the same instances. So if you want to see the differences, come back tomorrow and see! As usual, I'll be in the USTREAM chat and I'll try to answer any questions that come up whenever I can. The streamed video and chat are embedded below, so come in, join the chat, and check it out. You can also follow Project Lore on twitter or check out our USTREAM channel to find out more! Also, if you happen to miss the stream, there should be some archived videos embedded below!

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Despite the fact that Ulduar is much more difficult that the previous tier of content, there are many guilds that are tearing through it! I mentioned in my last post that Ensidia had downed Yogg-Saron and since then many more have followed. While Yogg is technically the last boss in Ulduar, there is one more challenge lying in there for the truly dedicated raider.

Algalon is the special hard mode only boss that you can only face after defeating the he Assembly of Iron, Hodir, Thorim, Freya, and Mimiron hard modes.

With the news that guilds have started to actually see this fight, and then the following blue post that you can only attempt this boss for one hour PER WEEK, it begs the question. How long until we see this guy go down?

While I was fairly sure we would see him downed by one of the “professional” raiding guilds this week, now I am not so sure. Remember after all, this guy “feeds on your tears” and is not supposed to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Additionally one hour seems like a ridiculously short window, I imagine it will take some top guilds weeks to learn the fight alone.

Part of me always figured that part of the reason the top guilds could down bosses so fast is because the sheer number of hours they are able to put into an encounter. Now there is a limitation.

Furthermore, what does this mean for the rest of us?? I know my guild spent over 10 hours on Mimiron alone this week (phase 4 is absolutely insane). I am really having a hard time imagining us downing this guy who, presumably is harder, in that short of a window.

I really cannot wait to see how this all shakes out, and will be incredibly impressed with whoever manages world first. This is an interesting move for Blizzard, can’t say I’m sure how I feel about it yet.

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Yes, I know it’s popular for everyone to want to get easy loot off of easy bosses, but not everyone feels that way. I personally love a challenge, and I know I am far from alone.

It is for this reason that Naxx was somewhat disappointing to me, I know it was their plan to make the first tier of raiding accessible, but after farming for months on end, I feel it got somewhat mind-numbing.

It is for that reason I was fairly nervous going into Ulduar the first time yesterday. While I knew it would be harder, I was concerned that it too would quickly become another boring farm grind. I was really hoping they would give a challenge.

Man, did I get my wish! Ladies and gentleman, I am happy to report the bosses in Ulduar are SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult that those in tier 7, and even harder than I had ever expected. Now I’m sure there are those among you that will disagree, no doubt some of you crazies out there went in and demolished the place, I even saw that Ensidia has downed Yogg-Saron. But for me, I’m pretty confident this content will keep me busy for a while.

My guild was able to make quick work of Flame Leviathan (one shot, dare I say he was easy? :p), but man did things take a turn after that. Ingis was incredibly challenging, and after a few hours of diligently wiping we moved on the both of the other bosses that are available after Leviathan goes down. While both Razorscale and XT-002 seemed much more manageable, we were unable to down either of them. I’m feeling pretty good that at least one of these guys will be going down tonight, but I am just thrilled at the new mindset this has put me in.

No longer do I expect to clear half the instance in a day, I don’t even know if we can clear half the instance in a month! Ulduar is a challenge, and we haven’t even hit the hard modes yet. I couldn’t be more excited for the level of difficulty lying ahead of us.

How are you guys doing in there? More importantly, how do you find the difficulty? Are you guys knocking down bosses because it is too easy, or are you hitting your head against a wall because it is too hard? I’d love to hear your experiences.

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