A new patch has finally opened and this post is an update on our first week inside the new ICC instance.

As is usual with patch days we had a 45 minute wait to get inside on Wednesday, plus a ton of lag in places and the usual server shutdowns to contend with, this being said I feel this patch landed a lot smoother than Ulduar did.

We started to work through the trash packs and up to Lord Marrowgar and then stood in front of him for 20 minutes for people to reboot due to vent lag which I'm sure was caused by the new patch. With that settled we pulled and wiped once due to losing two tanks via server lag. After picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off he hit the dirt on the next attempt.

We then had enough time to get in a few goes on Lady Deathwhisper and got a general feel for the fight then called it a night at 2330. Overall I think we lost about one and a half to two hours on the opening night, but we did kill the first boss so it's alll good.

The Thursday night was much smoother and we refined our Lady Deathwhisper tactics and got her down to 25% or so before calling the run. Friday night we decided to try and get in on Lady Deathwhisper once more as an extra optional raid and at the end of reset I'm glad we did.

We continued to work on the strat laid down the previous evening and honed it closer and closer to a kill, with some really close wipes. In the end it was around 2200 server time when she hit the deck to whoops and hollas over vent by all. I think Lady D is the most challenging fight in the instance so far in terms of everyone has a certain job to do at certains times and raid co-ordination has to be relatively high to pull this one off, also a good class balance is required too.

Speaking of challenging boss encounters the next one is the Gunship Battle, which although a lot of fun (gogo Jetpacks!) is one giant loot pinata. We lost two or three melee in the opening seconds when they lept over to the Horde ship too early without a tank to protect them and we still easily one shot it.

This boss is bugged at the moment so people who were on on the Horde Gunship when it went down died and had to res and run in, they were all ported up to Saurfang, including our master looter who couldn't get to the chest so we had to ticket everything over to it's owners. Also the ship doesn't dock at Deathbringer's Rise so everyone on the ship had to do their very best lemming impersonations to join up with us.

The rest of the night and the rest of the raid lockout we spent of Deathbringer Saurfang, which is effectively the gear check boss of the instance thus far. High dps is needed, as is top notch healing and healing co-ordination. On top of this people need to kite well and stay spread out as much as they can.

There are quite a few methods and tricks we used that resulted in our kill which are probably different to what some other Guilds may use on this fight but eventually it worked for us - after heruclean effort and I don't know how many sub 10% wipes - on Tuesday evening at around 2200 server time.

All in all it's been a very good week, we've done what we set out to do and that was clear the first wing before the reset. Yes I would have liked it to be a little speedier, but job done all the same. The effort shown by all was passable, but the effort on Lady D and Saurfang was very good in the end. Rest assured I will be expecting greater things for my raid crew in the coming weeks and months.

Also to note one of our 10 Man crews knocked down the first wing on Saturday night with the Realm First on "I'm on a Boat!" so a big grats to those who were in on that. Below are the screen shots of the kills I was party to and able to get a shot of.

Now time to farm til Janurary and the new wing!

Some more news from Altruism HQ is that of 22/11/09 we now have TotGC Faction Champions down!

We rocked up to the Crusader instance on Sunday night with two new kills fresh in our system and Hc Beasts already dispatched for the second time in a week.

We firmly set our sights on getting down Lord Jarraxus killed and entering the Champions scrap with more tries left than we had the previous week. After Lord J was down we were staring down FC with 28 attempts left on the board.

After a lot of hard work and dedication from all we took down the best the Horde had to offer with 23 tries remaining. They had a challenging set up for us to deal with in the form of: Priest, Paladin, Shaman healers. Rogue, Warrior, Death Knight, Hunter, Lock, Boomkin and Mage dps.

This kill has bumped us up to 10th on overall progression and 7th in 25 Player T9 content. So grats to all who've put in the work to push us this far. Here's hoping we can continue this hard work and climb further.

For the rest of the night we started work on the Twins and managed 75% before we wiped. It was disappointing that they managed to get a heal off in the process of us getting them down this far. We managed to burn down the shield but too late to nail that interrupt which could have seen us at 60%. Still 75% despite this is still impressive work for a fight we're still taking baby steps on.

The rest of the tries for this week have been used trying several methods to put us in good stead for a kill on the Twins within the next reset, so once again watch this space!

In other news we managed to get a Tribute to Insanity 10 Player on Saturday night and grats to Atair on his shinny new Swift Alliance Steed. Hoping to add a picture of him on it below very soon. Also below is the gang posing after the Faction Champions HC kill.

Two nights and two new boss kills! What more can I say?

We rocked up to TotGC 25 man tonight fresh and pumped from our Heroic Beasts kill and took eight attempts to take the Eredar Lord down to the floor!

We took another couple of goes at Faction Champions after that and got a feel for the Heroic version and we hope they'll be down very soon, so watch this space!

Go go Altruism!

Well it's been a while with any 25 man news and no we haven't stopped raiding the 25s, we've in fact been on a long hard slog to tonight's kill on TotGC 25 man Beasts of Northrend.

The first few weeks of the instance have been a tough gig to raid. Lots of DCs and latency issues due to a very unstable design from Blizzard, so GG Blizz for that.

The past two weeks we've been hitting the Beasts up at every chance we could get and did have some troubles with the phase two burrow, but over the last two raids we seemed to be breaking through that brick wall bit by bit.

Tonight we had a 2% wipe on enrage and a 4% wipe as well but we gritted our teeth and went back in again and again honing the process as much as we could until finally we nailed them.

It was pretty epic, he enraged right on a Massive Crash and the guys and girls did their job and got out of the way. From then on it was burn baby, burn! Then he hit the deck and we got our kill we so richly deserved.

It's one of those moments as GM you cherish, one of those moments that makes it all worth while. You can come away from the raid with a big fat grin on your face telling the Guild how proud you are of them.

So congratulations to all who helped on this, the 25 in the raid tonight, plus the guys who were benched as they put in a hell of a lot of effort on previous nights and didn't bitch or moan if they were left on the sidelines. As I said, I am so proud of every last one of you.

I close in saying:

Altruism FTW!

Well, it's been a little while since we had an update here on the Guild Website and we have a fair bit of news to share on what's been going on this past month.

In 25 man we've killed Onyxia and it's great to see the Broodmother back. Que many people shouting "-50 DKP!" "That's not even remotely possible!" "Dps, very slowly..." and of course the immortal "MOAR DOTS!"

A fun fight with some nice loot but not serious progression. Beasts is the main target there and we're getting very close to getting our first kill, so watch this space!

Our 10 man crew has been whipping up a storm by getting Freya Three Elders down, also the speed kill on Onyxia. We had a few tries at Firefighter 10 man and the opening signs look good. It's just finding the time to go back and finally unlock Algalon, which we will do very soon.

The big ticket news however is that we have cleared TotGC on 10 player, 2 weeks ago in fact. Since then we've been getting back in and honing our skills in there and upon this very night we are very proud to annouce that we achieved the 45 Tribute chest run!

We started off by two shotting Beasts, one shotting Lord Jaxx, two shotting Faction Champs, one shotting Twins and three shotting Anub himself. We had some imba and not so imba drops, two items DEed. We had a crapton of orbs and trophies out of the run, but the main thing is we had fun doing it! It was a fantasic run from start to finish and we had a fair audience on vent to hear us get the kill, so thanks for the support to all the girls and guys who didn't make the run. You guys are ace!

Below are screen shots of Ony's head being turned in by Timuzz after the first 25 man kill and another screen shot of the crew in front of one dead Anub after the 45 Tribute run.

Altruism ftw!

Finally we have TotC 25 clear. Faction Champions proved a sticking point, as over the past few weeks we have had latency and DC issues from most of the Guild. Players who are usually rock solid with conn being anything but at crucial times.

FC went down on Monday night and the crew finished with a quick couple of tries of Twins then called things for the night. Tuesday came and went and signalled the demise of Twins and Anub.

Now we've done it once it's now on farm, so all in all awesome job people. Now time to go for heroic mode!

Earlier this month we downed General Vezax and Yogg Saron 25, but that's not all we've been up to here at Altruism during the month of August. Time stands still for no man and we've been putting it to good use.

Our 10 man crew has been busy scoring victories in the following encounters: Stokin' the Furnace (10 Player), I Choose You Steelbreaker (10 Player), Lose Your Illusion (10 Player), I Could Say That This Cache Was Rare (10 Player), Crazy Cat Lady (10 Player), I Love The Smell Of Saronite In The Morning (10 Player). They also bagged Call Of The Crusade (10 Player) and Salt and Pepper (10 Player) just this night.

We also haven't been resting on our laurels in 25 player either and have managed to get ourselves Twilight Zone (25 Player), Heartbreaker (25 Player) and Three-Sixty Pain Spike (25 Player) during this time too. Below are what screenshots I have of the encounters I have had the chance to get one on.

I would like to sincerly thank all the players who have stuck with us to gain this progress, it isn't always an easy road, but we do so together as a family.

We have come from nothing and we are steadily improving. We are progressing into one to a Top 10 Guilds on Aerie Peak. We are so close to that goal and once we have achieved this together we will strive to further ourselves as much as we can.

May I remind you all of what Altruism means. Altruism is an ethical doctrine that holds that individuals have a moral obligation to help, serve, or benefit others, if necessary at the sacrifice of self interest. Auguste Comte's version of altruism calls for living for the sake of others. One who holds to either of these ethics is known as an "altruist."

To achieve our common goals each and everyone of us must band together for the common good and do our jobs assigned to us within raids, for when we do that we are unbeatable!

Tonight we came of age. Tonight we showed what we are capable of. Tonight we did what we set out to do when entering Ulduar 25 for the first time. Tonight we took down the Yogg Saron 25. Tonight we can finally move onto 25 man Hardmodes. The Old God is dead. Long live the new Gods!

There were people had had truly wished we had in the raid, people like Dragóóna, Mouse, Cocó, Ishanda, Buliwy, Mani, Tomdingle Lugus and many more besides. However this shows what a strong crew we've built up here over these past months.

We couldn't have gotten this far without them however, or indeed without any of the people currently in Guild. The Social members like Edite, Kirra and Oly for example, there are others I know but too many to mention. So in short my deepest gratitude goes out to every single person.

It's been a long tough summer of holidays, net issues and the like which has lead to us sometimes struggling for a regular team, especially these past few weeks, but we've knuckled down through the tension, through the fustrations and came through the other side together as a family.

Tonight we started off with a 3% wipe on the very first try. We then had several wipes in Phase One and Two through not getting things right, procced clouds, extra tenticles which meant "Nah, wipe it". After this we had a 15% wipe and quickly followed that up with the kill, on which we ended with 24 people still standing and well over a minute left on Enrage. Those Guardians hit hard eh Kirra?

Once Yogg was dead and we had calmed down we headed over to Trial of the Crusader to take a look at the new boss. We had taken down the Beasts on Tuesday (Screen shot below.) and we wanted to take a look at Lord Jaraxxus who ended up being a two shot.

In closing I would once again like to say a big well done to everyone who has contributed to how far we've come. I'm am deeply thankful for all your hard work and efforts thus far. Long may they continue!

Altruism FTW!

Some new news from Altruism and that news is that Yogg Saron 10 is down, Iron Council hardmode is down and the Northrend Beasts 10 man are also down.

We gathered a 10 man crew on Friday night and entered Ulduar 10, two trys later Yogg was dead. We then went over to Iron Council and tried Steelbreaker last, again another two attempts and that was toast too. We rounded things up by going over to the 10 man Trial of the Champion and destroyed the Beasts of Northrend after a couple of tries.

Ok, so it's been a couple of days but this has been my first chance to report the latest news from Altruism HQ. After a record speed clear of all our farm bosses in Ulduar 25 we were left with Sunday, Monday and Tuesday left with just General Vezax and Yogg Saron still standing.    We zoned in on Ulduar Sunday night with the intention of downing at least Vezax and perhaps even scoring a little progress on Yogg himself.    We worked on the General's HP pool and consistently got it down further and further, we had several wipes lower than 10%. We knew we could down him, we just had to get one go with everyone 100% focused and with half the evening gone he dropped.    I've been in a lot of 1st Guild kills in this and other Guilds, Sunday's kill was one of those "finally" kills for me. Many players went mental on vent but I think a few of the more seasoned raiders felt the same as I. I'll take nothing away from the guys and girls who attended, they all did a marvelous job.    This now heralds the beginning of the end of the normal part of Heroic Ulduar and the demise of Yogg Saron is in our sights.

After a couple of weeks of farming and gaining a few achievements on bosses previously downed we headed into Ulduar 25 with Mimiron in our sights.

We had started with two nights work on him last reset and scored consistant phase 3 progress. However phase two was a problem. Tonight we conquered our P2 demons and started to have some P3 demons.

We switched our tactics around and came up with the idea of having our Tanks tank the Assualt Bots, which worked a charm. On the very last attempt of the evening he fell.

We managed to get ourselves not only Heroic: The Keepers of Ulduar, but also Heroic: Not So Friendly Fire. All in all a fantastic night for the Guild, now time for a meeting with the General.

Ok so this latest news post is a few days late due my working but here goes anyway.

On Tuesday night Altruism once again zoned into Ulduar 25 and continued our progress on Thorim. It took 6 or 7 tries but we nailed the bugger in the end.

This wasn't the first first for the Guild this evening however as the guys and gals managed their first ever first Guild kill without their trusty GM and regular RL (yours truly) present at the raid. Man I hate to miss first kills but big kudos to everyone for pulling together and getting the job done... the first of many (but not too many!) without me there I'm sure.

We've already started clearing the place once again with the intention of starting work of Mimiron as soon as possible...

The fall of Uldaur is in our grasp! Time to pull together and show what the family here at Altruism can do!

At long last Mimiron is dead in 10 man. The guys decided to rock up to Ulduar 10 after the raid on Monday night determined to knock down the insane old Mecho-Gnome.

In effect they nine manned the boss due to a certain Mage, who shall remain nameless, dying on phase one to Proximity Mines.

Despite this early set back the crew held firm and didn't give in, in the end it was a frantic burn to finish off all three parts in phase four but they pulled it off none the less, so good job guys!

After that they decided to take a peek and the General and had a few goes at him to get a feel for the fight before calling the raid.

On tuesday night however they went back in and polished him off too leaving us at 12/14 in Ulduar 10... surely this coming reset Yogg-Saron will fall to Altruism's hand? Watch this space!

Another raid night for Altruism and another new boss kill to add to our collection. We started the evening by heading into Iron Council and down them for some easy free loot then port over to the Conservatory of Life to say hello to Freya and her friends.

The trash to Freya is fun and frenetic, lots of CC and co-ordination is required but we breezed through it and started working on the boss herself. We had a few wiped getting used to the Snap, Storm and Water Elemental set of adds, we even had one enrage due to one add dropping 1 second too late.

We picked ourselves up off the ground, tended to the dead and wounded and got ready to go again... this time she was taken down with ease, we even had a bit of rest in between add waves to regen some health and mana.

We scored some nice loot for the guys and a nice picture for the website too. So grats to all who came... next up on the menu is Thorim!

Go go Altruism!

Monday night in Ulduar 25 and we decided skip Council and Auriaya and to head straight to Hodir for a night of progression with intention of going at him until he was downed.

It took us two tries to get into the groove of the fight and make sure we had as many people in Starlight as possible. On the third try we killed him and then headed over for a couple of quick kills on Council, Auriaya and Emalon, who happened to drop four pieces of t8.5.

All in all another great night of raiding that now means we're 8/14 in Ulduar 25, so grats to all who attended!

The final day of this reset and we had lots of work to do, so we zoned into Ulduar once more hoping to progress that little further than previous weeks.

We still had Iron Assembly up and Auriaya, who to be the main target of the night as this would be a new kill for us. After a few more attempts on her to get our pull and tactics down just right was all it needed for us to kill her, obtaining "Heroic: The Antechamber of Ulduar." Also we had our first "Fragment of Val'anyr" in the process, which went to Hópé.

Once the catwomen was felled we moved back to Assembly to get some quick easy loot for our raiders before this raiding week comes to a close. We finished the night by almost finishing Hodir off, 15% our best try... none to shabby for a few goes to get the feel of things at the end of a long and very pro raid.

All in all it's been a good week here at Alturism, here's hoping we can push the progress that bit further this coming week with Hodir and Thorim in our sights.