Can you say "BooYah!"?

Yeah, we think you can!

A huge congratulations to [SBC] on Sunday's fantastic raiding come-back. After a dreadful day on Saturday, [SBC] returned on Sunday for a mind-blowing 7 kills including the downing of Deathwing in the "Madness of DeathWing" encounter, an epic 15 minute fight.

Avalanche is now a full 8 of 8 in DragonSoul, pre-nerf, a first in the annals of Avalanche raiding. "Sure, we've completed all of the content for every expansion since vanilla, but never before have we managed to complete it this early, before Blizzard started to reduce the difficulties of the encounters," says Maessik, an [SBC] team member, "This is a major step up for us."

It is indeed.

But it's difficult to know exactly what to attribute Avalanche's success to. "They have been at it for a while, quite dedicated they were," says Chezwick, Avalanche's guild master. "Eight hours a week for seven weeks, that's putting your best foot forward, certainly. But it's hard to tell whether it was simply good playing, good team work, and Sam's masterful fight calling or the unlimited midget porn that was offered as a reward." Then he slowly shakes his head, looks out over Stormwind, and says, "Yup, it certainly is hard to tell."

So what is next for the team? When asked about future plans for [SBC], Jouph, the team's raid leader stated "I think we'll continue to clear DS for the next few weeks, just to finish gearing everyone up and to verify that we do, indeed, have DragonSoul normal on farm, then we'll move on to heroics both in DS and FL."

However, new controversy was sparked amidst myriad rumours that Avalanche has plans to put Sam, a long-time raid team member, out to stud. While these rumours have yet to be confirmed, when asked about them Sam smiled and stated simply "Stud means sex, ya know. Just sayin'."

Well, whatever happens in the next few months before the dawning of the Mists of Pandaria, there is little doubt that Avalanche will continue to push, fight on, and stay on the bleeding-edge of WoW.

Avalanche Stomps Two for 7 of 8 and Reaches Rank 40

A huge congratulations to [SBC] on Sunday's fantastic day of raiding wherein they successfully downed both Warmaster Blackhorn and the Spine of Deathwing. This rockets Avalanche to 7 of 8 in normal modes and pushes them all the way up to 40 on server. Neither fight was a DPS race, much more emphasis is centred about raid awareness and good, calm calling. Well done all.

Guild Ventrilo Drive [REDUX]

Well, we did it. Avalanche's Ventrilo account has been paid in full for the next 2 years. A hearty thanks to all of those who contributed real world monies to the continuation of that which goes far beyond a mere social tool and allows us to continue to achieve raid kills.

Avalanche Monthly Meeting Notes

We had a good turn-out for last week's monthly meeting despite the fact that there simply was not a lot to discuss. The primary topic of the day, however, was the continuing issue surrounding raid slots. Sign-up and show-up people!

If you were unable to attend or simply wish to review what was discussed and decided, Dries has most kindly posted the meeting minutes in the guild forum.

~ maessik

Guild Ventrilo Drive [REMIX]

We have almost met our goal to raise $130USD to maintain our Avalanche Ventrilo account for another year but we are not quite there yet. As an Avalanche member, you enjoy a number of services that, simply and quite frankly, are not free. All that we ask is that you contribute the equivalent of $5USD via Paypal. It takes about 2 minutes to do and you do not need to sign up or have a PayPal account.

~ Read Chezwick's complete article by clicking HERE.

Avalanche Monthly Meeting Notes

We had a good turn-out for last week's monthly meeting and discussed a number of topics, some of which caused (as they had in the past) a bit of a stir. If you were unable to attend or simply wish to review what was discussed and decided, Dries has most kindly posted the meeting minutes in the guild forum.

Five of Eight

Avalanche is officially 5 of 8 with the downing of Ultraxion during Monday's [SBC] run. What with the impending holidays and raid members travelling to see family, we had a few guests this week including Sam and Chez. Thanks guys for the jump-ins.

Jouph is trying to get a few runs together over the holiday, nothing formal but if you are on, check the in-game calendar and sign up - it may be your day to get that tier piece you've been eyeing ('cause you know it won't be under the tree!)

Vitharr's DPS Guide

You may have noticed a new tab in the navigation of the site. Vitharr has volunteered to write a few articles on maximising your character. This includes Gems, Enchants, Reforges, and more. Take a look at his first article on min/maxing your DPS by clicking the V-POSTS tab in the site nav.

Well, I'm out until next year so I'll wish you all a very happy holiday and look forward to some awesome progression in 2012. Oh, and by the way: VENT DRIVE!

~ maessik

From On-High : Guild Ventrilo Drive

"...Our yearly subscription for our server will expire just after New Year's 2012. As a team, we need to raise a minimum of 130.00 USD to continue Vent for next season. So, as I have stated over the last few months, I will be asking for donations of real currency, no matter what kind, to continue our Ventrilo service and look into the possibility of improving it and/or if enough funds are collected, extending it for a multi-year subscription."

~ Read Chezwick's complete article by clicking HERE.

Avalanche Monthly Meeting

The next monthly meeting is scheduled for 6:05 am server time on Saturday, 10 December, 2011 (that's Friday for EU, CAN, US) Please check your handy-dandy world clock for local times.

While we are on the subject, Avalanche is considering adding a real-life Secretary to record notes and help post that info on guild forums for members to reference - if you have any interest, please contact Chezwick or any officer for more details.

Dragon Soul

As you all know, Dragon Soul, Patch 4.3, has been released and with it, a host of new features including Void Storage, Transmography, and the Looking for Raid utility. What you may not know is that there has been a huge philosophical change in the way that raid lockouts work. I suggest reading up on the details but, to illustrate:

Say you went into DS with [TNB] on Monday and killed the first 2 bosses, looting proceeds and you may or may not have received something. You could then go back into DS with [SBC] on Wednesday and again down the first two bosses. HOWEVER, as the looting procedure happened in your [TNB] run, you will not be able to loot / roll on drops in the [SBC] run for those bosses.

If you then continue to boss 3 (in either group) you may again start to loot / roll on drops. So the difference is that, rather than being locked to raids, you are now locked, not to bosses, but to Boss Loots! - A huge change that will make progression, experience, and finding and filling groups SO much better and easier.

Dismissed and... be careful out there.

~ maessik

2H or !(2H)

So now that both [SBC] and [TNB] have Firelands on farm, the question becomes "do we start in on heroics or do we attempt to form a 25N?" The answer is not all that simple. There have been a number of calls for each and each has their advantages and disadvantages.

Many feel that 25s leave too much room for error and, frankly, are not as challenging as 10s. Whichever way you feel about this, it is still unclear as to whether there are enough players available to form a 25N.

Heroics are a bit different in Firelands than they have been in the past. Where as before we generally saw a static increase in overall HP and perhaps a new boss ability or two, these heroics are, for the most part, very different fights from their normal counterparts. Emphasis is not on gear, not on brute-force, but rather all on subtlety, teamwork, technique, and raid awareness. Thus, heroics may not necessarily be the natural progression choice.

There is also a contingent that feels that normals are still challenging if you attempt to one-shot everything in the 4-hour raid period: the perfection run, so-to-speak. I can see that this wouuld be enticing, especially if you are fine-tuning your teamwork in preparation for heroics.

Raid Event set for Nov 28

There is a guild calendar event set for the 28th of November at 4am server. If you are interested and available for a 25run in [SBC], please add yourself to the roster for the event.

For now, this event is limited to current [SBC] members and geared Alts who ARE NOT IN [TNB].