It's been a while since the last update, but the glorious Quartz collective can for once claim to have cleared all content before the next content patch. My lord, we're soooo bored! MOAR CONTENT *cough*
Joking aside, we've taken care of the current new type of 'hard mode' encounter Blizzard seems to aim this game at by tackling OS 3D, and managed to nab some Plagued Proto Drakes before 3.1 completely removes them. Artificially increasing encounter difficulties with either achievements or extra mobs is a new phenomenon that has so far been a bit of hit and miss. I guess time will tell if WotLK is an improvement over the old way of raiding.
After clearing out the (nerfed) Sunwell in the very last week - yay us - , we can look back on the TBC era with a smile. Starting with seemingly endless Karazhan runs and a drooling, groaning one-eyed freak and his Ogre harem, then moving into Serpentshrine Cavern (so many Naga!) with it's great final boss design. Entering the Eye, and it's epic final bossfight which was perhaps one of the most fun ones we have seen yet. Battling the endless trash waves and 'move out of the fire!' finale of Mount H, the fun of Black Temple and it's array of funky bosses and the fabled Illidan fight, the frantic play that was Zul'Aman Bear runs. And finally, albeit maybe a little too short after the changes, the interesting design that was Sunwell with it's gigantic, crazy legless final boss. Some fights were pushovers, others seemingly impossible tasks, but we managed to do it all our own way. Looking back already brings on nostalgia.
And another short update on the Quartz front. The raid nerf really made us outgear most of the content we'r facing now. And it's all up to tactics now. So that means that two raid days later we killed both Brutallis and Felmyst!
These nerfed bosses are hardly worth the update so I'll just keep it short, but stay tuned for next week when we'll face a nice pair of ladies.
It's been a while since our last update. Quartz is still alive and kicking! A lot of stuff happened in the last few months, just not a lot of new kills.
I was planning on making this big huge story about our glorious Kalec kill, but with the 3.0.2 patch sunwell got hit hard by the nerf bat. Before the patch we almost had him down, after the patch is was an easy one shot.
While I'm still happy we get to see more of Sunwell I'm sure these kills wont feel as good as the ones before the nerfs. Anyway prepares for more updates in the coming weeks as the Quartz Collective will be ripping through the nerfed Sunwell patiently awaiting the release of Wrath of the Lich King
It's been too long since my last confession!
Summer approaches, and the collective has expanded with some refugees of the collapsed horde guild Unique Legacy. As we hurl them at Illidan like the cannon fodder they are, we've refound some of the spirit that is Quartz. In all the rush to get to Illidan we almost lost something that is dear to so many of us: the ability to smile at just how slack we can be. This game has always been about the community, about the group, not about individuals. So welcome guys, we will find nicknames for all of you and crush your spirit, Quartz style.
By tatertot at 2008-06-03 13:36
Illidan down!
And so it came to be that Quartz, in all its glorious slackness ventured into BT to kill Illidan. We were not prepared - but let's face it, we never are.
All I can say is, this was the encounter we've thought about since TBC launched, and it was quite a ride.
There were some minor mistakes, like the tank switching to zerker stance and a two-hander at 5% (word to the wise, be careful where you place your macros), but no first Quartz kill has ever been normal.
Momomomonsterkill! 3 bosses in 9 days!
Tater is slack on updating the front page as usual so I, Miniboss, bring you the news while he works on some thesis or another. Quartz was in a minor slump, progress didn't happen for a couple of weeks, hots left us and she is truly missed. But what an extended week we have had, changed thursday raid to tuesday raid and there was much rejoicing. RoS was aoe healed to death, Mother went down like Gets mum on Lvaz hotdog and the council proved to be a chaos that needed some order.
Now awaits the big one, Illidan Stormrage himself, I can't wait, this is what I play for. Learning complex new encounters. Screw loot and farm raids, progression is where the fun lies. Unfortunately I can't help but see a cloud on the horizon, Brutallus is just 2 bosses away now and by all accounts we'll have to do 2 months of farming of MH/BT + Kalecgos and half the guild becoming leather workers before he can be killed. For now however, we have a crazed night elf to show who is (Mini)Boss!
As we delve deeper into the recesses of the Black Temple, the bosses get meaner. At least their names do. Gurtogg Bloodboil and Teron Gorefiend sure sound like they could oneshot the raid, but fortunately the learning curve isn't all that steep. Teron is arguably the easier boss of the two, with the only real hard part being the contruct killing. That part of the encounter is quite enjoyable though, and I appreciated seeing some open air again. Blizzard has obviously put a lot of time into the design of BT, and as much as I've grown tired of damp dark dungeons with low ceilings, so far I haven't felt that mindnumbing 'we're never getting out of this place and this trash will never ever end' feeling you used to get somewhere after Firemaw.
Beforehand we read Archimonde was the ultimate retard check. Some guides suggested using 23 or 24 people rather than taking people who can't avoid a huge burning patch or who find it difficult to click on an item at the right time. Sadly, this is Quartz - if we raided without retards it would be a small raid indeed. The 'can't make a single mistake' bosses are bad enough, but when I found out this encounter also included no AE whatsoever, I was tempted to just cancel trying Archi altogether.
It was a Tuesday, like any other Tuesday. Except we had a Zul'Aman speed run planned. About 30 min after the planned start time we can finally get started. Everyone gets buffed up, flasked up and eat some food. We bang the gong! kill the first waves of trolls. We rushed up to the Gauntlet! A great battle commenced... and then we wiped even before the first boss. Okay maybe not this week.
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