Project Lore

Earth, Wind, And Fire is arguably one of the toughest achievements in the game, requiring that you kill all three Vault of Archavon bosses within 60 seconds of each other, but the 10-player version has was completed by both Premonition (first) and Mediocrity (second) this week. Thankfully, the latter recorded the whole affair so we can see just how they pulled off this monumental feat!

I'll admit that when I first heard about the achievement, I thought it would entail engaging each boss at the same time, with the raid separated into several 2-3 man groups, but it turns out that they can be pulled out of their respective rooms without resetting. This ends up being key to Mediocrity's strategy, and it allows them to make the groups a little more even. They start with the newest Vault boss, Koralon the Flame Watcher, first, and while whittling down his health, drag him all the way over to the dungeons' namesake, Archavon the Stone Watcher. At this point, it's important, even when tanking two separate bosses at once, that both of the tanks stay near each other in order to reduce the effect of Koralon's Meteor Fists attack. Presumably, a second group is staying on Emalon the Storm Watcher this entire time, who would be much harder to lead around the instance with all of his adds in tow. Sadly, we don't get to see precisely how they handle the Overcharged minions, since this video is only filmed from one perspective. Besides, I really can't imagine having to deal with all three bosses' area of effect attacks at once! It looks like we'll still have to wait a little while before anybody nails it on 25-man, but I imagine that it couldn't be significantly harder since your numbers wouldn't be spread quite so thin. The real important thing here just seems to be getting the strategy down and knowing each boss well enough to automatically respond to their individual abilities. Tough or not, I'd love to see more achievements like this thrown into the game. It reminds me a lot of the live raid they did at BlizzCon this year, where they pit the aforementioned Premonition against several different raid bosses at once, arena style. How about you, readers?

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Word on the street is that Blizzard was running an in-house pool to bet on whether or not anyone would complete the Heroic version of Trial of the Crusader released today. Well... it looks like at least one employee owes everyone else some money! Why? Because Premonition, what can now be considered the premiere U.S.-based raiding guild, has brought down the house. Not only did they clear the challenge on 10-man within a few hours of its release, but they also did it in less than five attempts. That earns them the A Tribute To Mad Skill achievement, which is rewarded to players who defeat all of the bosses, up through Anub'Arak, with 45 tries left on their counter. Just check Delia's Armory profile to see it for yourself! If you aren't familiar with the mechanic, Heroic runs through Trial of the Crusader allow you to obtain extra rewards depending on how many attempts you have left by the end. The total starts at 50 and dwindles, with each wipe, from there. I can tell you from first-hand experience that it's quite a feat. Is it harder than Yogg + 0? Perhaps not. But even after my guild one-shot Anub'Arak on Normal (not as surprising as you might think), we wiped for a good hour-and-a-half on Heroic Northrend Beasts. By the end of our scheduled raid time tonight, we were down to 35 attempts for the week. So for those of you who feared that ToC would be a cakewalk, worry no longer. This is the way it should've been all along (we'll bring you impressions in a forthcoming post)! But as far as we know right now, the World First for Heroic 25-man Trial of the Crusader is still fair game. So what do you guys think about this Premonition's achievement? I know speed kills like this can be discouraging to some people out there, but remember that this was done by one of the top guilds in the world. And hey, remember, they still wiped to Hogger at BlizzCon!

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BlizzCon held some pretty fun events this year for fans to watch, including a live raid event with Premonition, the guild known most recently as the first guild in the U.S. to achieve Alone in the Darkness. Coliseum style, the guild took on several bosses at once as they came in five waves. And a very large audience looked on, making for a crowded venue but also a lot of fun as everyone cheered on Premonition. They were successful at downing the first few sets of bosses, then had some trouble when they focused on Thaddius first in his set with fellow Naxx bosses Patchwerk and Anub'Rekhan. The team wiped on that first try, then re-set, this time focusing on Patchwerk first. That proved to be more successful, and they downed the group. But that sneaky team at Blizzard had something clever in store for the final fight. Hogger. Yes, the mighty level 11 elite Riverpaw gnoll chieftain from Elwynn Forest (he's actually Arthas in disguise [/silly]) made his appearance as an upgraded level 80 elite. As you'll see, he wasn't exactly an easy fight: Another pretty standard attraction at the convention was halls of artwork created for WoW. As a neat addition this year, Blizzard also displayed a group of showcases full of "n00bz." Blizzard handed out 225+ of these neat little figurines as complete blanks to select employees, and many of them wound up on display at BlizzCon. Here's a quick video I took so you can see them for yourself. I narrated a bit along the way, and paused at some of my favorites: A final note on the N00bz - part of each BlizzCon goer's swag bag included an exclusive StarCraft II "Raynor" figure. It's part of a new series of collectible Blizzard-inspired toys. Hopefully we'll see more of these soon. Among my other fave sightings at BlizzCon, I can't fail to mention being dazzled by Felicia Day and the cast of The Guild. As you can see, I went in full fan-girl mode to get a signed cast photo (for my husband, really!) and a snapshot with Felicia Day, since I've also loved her in Dr. Horrible, Buffy and Dollhouse :). Unfortunately, I failed to shoot video of the crew, so you all will have to settle for the lovely photo of Felicia and I! At least the memory will live on in my heart... I just wish I was as lucky as iTZKooPA, who was being inadvertently followed by the Guild cast. Lucky guy! Well, this turned out to be a bit of a random look at some of my fave random sightings at BlizzCon 2009. Hope you've enjoyed it. Let us know what you think!

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