After a long absence, Decus returned to raiding on Thursday March 19. We ventured into Naxxramas 10man with 8 guild members - Correllian, Damosques, Degenerus, Eladel, Ellome, Gilthelar, Huath, and Xenocyde. We picked up two more DPS in short order - Ithorc (warrior) and Ratatosk (hunter) - from the rogues gallery :)

We hit the Arachnid Quarter first, with Anub'Rekhan our first target. It took a bit to shake the rust off and get everyone coordinated back into the group spirit but, in true Decus fashion, we prevailed!



We then headed to Grand Widow Farlina, who didn't last under our suddenly confident band of adventurers. We finished up the Arachnid Quarter with Maexxna, then headed on to the Plague Quarter and Noth the Plaguebringer. After Noth succumbed to our might we decided to see if we had what it takes to "do the dance" and ventured forth to Heigan the Unclean. We spent some time learning the dance and made good progress. Unfortunately it was getting late by this time and so the raid was called.

In addition to jumping back into raiding and downing 4 bosses in Naxx, we picked up a shiny new hunter - Ratatosk! Welcome aboard!

Look for more raiding updates soon!

After getting bested by Zul'Aman on Tuesday, we returned with a vengeance Thursday (a day before reset) to make sure the natives were fully aware of how we felt about our previous defeat. We left no skull unbashed (well, except for one) in true Decus spirit.

Since we used up so much time on Nalorakk Tuesday, we decided to one-shot him tonight then we moved onto the Gauntlet and Akil'zon.

The Gauntlet, while furious and chaotic, really brings out the best in people, and we have some of the best people around. We then prepared for Akil'zon, with hopes of moving onward soon after.

Akil'zon went smooth as silk and we one-shotted him as well. Our first guild kill of the Eagle boss! Mccaleb picked up a nifty healing neck - grats!

We then moved on to Halazzi, the Lynx boss. Lots of trash to learn and clear but we made it with enough time for a few attempts. Our best saw him to 14% - great progress for our first time seeing him!

Raid attendees were:
Correllian
Degenerus
Earthenfist
Lilas
Mccaleb
Merecat
Murgan
Xenocyde
Zathwiker
Zornnex

Due to some schedule changes and a reorganization of our raiding initiatives, Decus went into Zul'Aman on Tuesday April 29.

We headed to the bear boss, Nalorakk, with high hopes. Our expectations were met when he finally succumbed to our might.



Afterward we headed to the eagle boss, Akil'zon. The gauntlet event was a test of our abilities, but we ran it successfully on our second attempt. We were able to get some good attempts in on Akil'zon, with our final and best attempt getting him to 58%. Not long and we'll be moving even futher into Zul'Aman!

We returned to Karazhan on Friday 4/11 and Sunday 4/13.

For Friday's run we brought in several alts and did a straight boss run. We downed Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, Opera (BBW), and Curator.

Sunday we continued where we left off and finished the instance off. We downed Aran, Chess, Prince, Netherspite, Illhoof, and Nightbane (2nd guild victory)!

Congrats to all the winners of their t4 tokens and notable epics!

We took our first venture into SSC with Einherjars on Thursday 4/10. As is usual with a new instance, things started slowly as we learned the pulls and made our way to The Lurker Below, our first objective in this new (for us) zone.

The first few pack pulls were definite learning experiences, but did not cause any wipes just a few deaths here or there. All in the name of progress! :) Afterwards, the pulls got a lot easier and we breezed our way to Lurker.

Working out the strat for Lurker, we gave him 4 tries before calling the raid. Definite progress was made each attempt, and once we get the strat perfected Lurker will be a dead fish in the water.

To award our efforts, the zone dropped many a trash mob shiny. A leatherworking pattern, two totems, one thrown weapon, 2 nether vortexes, and 2 marks of the illidari were claimed. Not a bad haul for our efforts!

Nice work to all and I look forward to our next raid in Lady Vashj's domain!

we raided Gruul's with Einherjars again on Tuesday 4/8. To make a long story short, High King and Gruul succumbed to our combined power and many shinies were had by fortunate rollers!

This marks the third week in a row we downed Gruul, and thus he's been relegated to farm status.

Congrats all!

We had a full compliment of main raiders for Friday's Karazhan raid, so we did the required boss run, with the intent of going after Netherspite once Prince succumbed to our might.

The boss progression was: Moroes -> Opera (BBW) -> Curator -> Aran -> Chess -> Prince -> Netherspite.

To sum it up, aside from bad infernal placement on Prince, which took us two tries, we one-shotted EVERYTHING!

Congrats to Hamkiller for winning the t4 glove token and Lilas for winning her t4 helm token!

We returned Sunday night for Nightbane and the rest of the optional bosses. Nightbane gave us fits and took most of our raid time. Instead of ending on a down note we decided to hit Illhoof. We one-shotted him and at least were able to award two more epics to the raid group (Murgan on the belt, Degen on the chest).

All that's left is Attumen, Maiden, and Nightbane. The raid may continue Monday night, at least to down Attumen and Maiden for more gear. Nightbane is probably going to have to wait another week however.

Another Tuesday, another venture into Gruul's Lair with Einherjars. And another pair of supposedly rough raid bosses downed! This marks two weeks in a row we got Gruul; as it stands High King can be considered on farm, and one more week in a row of downing Gruul and he can be considered on farm status as well.

Congrats to the 6 winners of their t4 shoulder or t4 leg tokens!

Next week will be the last week we only do Gruul's. Starting 4/15, we'll be heading to Magtheridon's Lair afterwards in hopes of equipping people with their t4 chest!

We raided Karazhan on Friday 3/28, Sunday 3/30, and Monday 3/31 this week.

For Friday we had a mix of mains and alts so we decided to do the bosses in order. We were able to down Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, and Opera (Romulo and Julienne).

On Sunday we packed the raid with mains in an attempt to finish Kara off. We dropped The Curator, Shade, Chess, and Prince.

Determined not to let Netherspite survive the week, we came back on Monday with a bit different raid makeup with hopes of downing Netherspite early and giving Nightbane a few looks. We did more than that though, but I'll let the following picture speak for itself:



That's right, Nightbane's flame was extinguished! With hard work and great effort by all, Decus Praesidium has now fully cleared Karazhan! Congratulations to everyone!

The raid was on time and prepared this week to handle whatever High King and Gruul cared to dish out. And handle it we did! Both bosses one-shotted and the entire raid took about an hour. Quick and efficient, just like it should be!

As an added bonus, with the release of patch 2.4 earlier in the day, an extra t4 token was acquired from each boss, so a total of 6 Tier 4 tokens was had!

Congrats to all the winners, notably Degenerus winning the t4 leg token and yours truly winning the t4 shoulder token.