It's been quiet on this homepage, but most certainly not in the guild. The TBC launch came right in time for many, as the old content was getting, well, old, and though PvP provided some temporary relief we were all thirsty for something new. And I know I speak for many when I say TBC gave us exactly what we'd been hoping for. Tons and tons of quests, smaller instances on varying difficulty modes, a kickstart for all professions (except engineering of course), flying mounts and outdoor PvP. This reads like a Blizzard promo pitch but hey, they did it again, credit's due.

As we worked our way to 70 and tried to figure out the myriad of reputation grinds that were waiting and attunements that needed to be done, we all realised Karazhan would be our first 'larger' content and that a 10 man instance would not hold our entire guild. But this is Quartz, so we decided to just make three groups at once. And this weekend, Team Blue, Red and Green all ventured into Karazhan and slapped around the first few bosses. I can't explain how great it is to see three groups of 10 people all work together smoothly and achieve success on their own - and I thoroughly enjoy the smaller raid groups: you quickly learn what people's strengths are (and weaknesses of course - Tatertot/Darigaaz + doorway = prox aggro) and being back at the bottom of the gear list is a nice reminder of the early MC days, when we really felt like we were not supposed to be there yet. All I really want to say is: here's to a great TBC and may Karazhan completely fall to the might of the pink bunny soon. Thank you guys for sticking around and making the guild what it is.

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Last weekend the collective finally cleared Karazhan, and with the glorious demise of Nightbane a lot of repair money, reagents and pots were proven to be well spent. Karazhan, being the 'entry-level' raid instance was quite challenging, and though it was said that Maulgar wasn't the hardest raid encounter Blizzard ever designed, we went in for the first time last night not expecting any grand results. The pull, allegedly the hardest part, went flawless pretty much from the first try - and after only a few tries we started killing adds and realised purple was in the air.

The lack of trash (3 mobs), the graveyard being near, a meeting stone right outside the instance and the repair guy a stone throw away makes Gruul's Lair the least stressful raid instance in ages. Maybe that was the reason that a mere two hours after we entered Gruul's Lair for the first time, Maulgar was sleeping with the fishes. Sure, we couldn't loot him due to some bug, but it's all about the experience, right? Who needs tier 4 anyway! Great work all round, special mention for yours truly as the most imba mage tank WoW has ever seen. And special thanks from Bully, the last of the moonkin, to Blizzard for creating an encounter where owls actually have a use.

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The pink bunny and Naxxramas met again this week, as we decided to take a swing at the surprisingly human looking second boss in the Spider Wing. Spider cultists. Okay then. After some enjoyable trash pulls that turned out to be a lot less dangerous when moved into an open space, we got to the Widow herself. In an obvious attempt to bring back MC and AQ40 memories we got a bunch of adds, fire rain and poison spit. We've seen much worse! As always, the raid was extremely well-planned and prepared. So well in fact, that barely anyone had brought resistance pots. After some scraping in everyone's backpacks we located a few fire prots from easier MC days and finally took on the Widow.

Unfortunately fire prots are fairly useless when Faerlina seems to have it in for you and the rain follows you wherever you go. After having located the popular targets (for some reason druids attract more fire rain than any other class, apart from 'should we even bother healing them'-rogues) and subsequently staying away from them I did a lot better. Wish I could say the same about the rogues. But hey, no Gehenuran hybrid will get the collective down and Faerlina dropped quickly after. Next!

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After downing Razu, we were again faced with too many options for a simple slacker guild like Quartz. In order to actually be able to make any tier 3, we decided to spend some time finishing the quest first (and quickly learned the Abomination wing trash ranks right up there with LBRS alt-pugs in annoyance factor). The choice then, was between Noth, Patchwerk and Anub. Despite a continuous stream of whispers from Trixster telling me to do Patchwerk so I could share in his pain, we figured Anub might prove to be a little easier. Besides, tier 3 bracers are clearly the most desired part of the set.

After carefully studying the strategy (= Morbo copy pasting wowwiki into raid chat), we realised the 'tail-lifting' which is supposed to tell you a locust swarm is incoming, was in fact two pixels changing from white to broken white. Nothing but respect for those guilds that chose to do this without addons, but personally speaking I enjoyed the fight a lot more when we actually activated a mod to tell us what was happening. Perhaps next time a lightshow to announce bad things happening would be nice, Blizzard. We don't all have 23" flat screens.

In any case, once the kiting was under control, it was just a matter of waiting for a try without Gashrak passing out from exhaustion or Bladewing's pizza timer wiping us in the middle of an attempt. Boss kills are great and all, but nothing comes between a plate rogue and his food. And behold, the crypt lord fell before the mighty legion of pizza eaters, dropped the standard warrior/rogue loot (and a legendary thingy yours truly ninja'ed in true guildmaster style) and there was much rejoicing. Next up: Noth, a rather boring looking humanoid who summons .. skeletons. Amazing concept, Blizzard. All I can say is: he'd better drop caster stuff.

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After downing the Emps we've been kind of debating what to do. The Burning Crusade is coming and we had the choice between venturing deeper into the recesses of Ahn Qiraj and poking C'Thun in his eye, or exploring Naxxramas in all its glory. We decided to do both last week, after downing the Emps, spending one night of repairs on C'Thun and one night of repairs on Razuvious. Our encounter with the great eye was painful in more ways than one, but Razuvious immediately showed promise.

I like the type of encounters Blizzard is trying to create, thinking outside the box, though tanking priests is hardly an alien concept. We've perfected that in every 5 man ever done. It is perhaps that natural knack for tanking every mob known to man that helped us down our very first Naxx boss, so I'd like to thank all of our trusty overnukers for the excellent training they have provided our priests. Mini and Wild - this one's for you!