News & Updates - Thursday, Mar. 15, 2012
Holy shit, Hagara down.
Yay! Another one bites the dust, putting Smoke and Mirrors at 4th ranked on Malygos and still #1 ranked Horde side. Aren't we awesome? For first lewts we got shiny Shoulders of the Corrupted Protector which went to Luba, and a Girdle of the Grotesque which went to everyone's favorite druid, Alphamedic. Many fat lewts were had and it was lots of fun.
News & Updates - Tuesday, Mar. 6, 2012
Holy shit, Zon'ozz down.
Yep. We killed him. Took around a week of tweaking strategy and composition, probably less than that. I don't know. I haven't been keeping track. But yeah, kudos to us on the kill. Let's see, what lewts did we get. We got a sexy Infinite Loop, which went to Burnyou, and Gauntlets of the Corrupted Vanquisher which went to Alphamedic for our first lewts. I am having trouble with my Windows Movie Maker software, but a video of the first kill is forthcoming.... Sometime in the forseeable future.
Really hoping to pick up the pace and down Hagara the Stormbinder this week. Congratulations on a job well done and let's kick the shit out of some shit tonight.
Heroic Firelands
I want to be a Firelord. Not only that, I want Smoke and Mirrors to have completed heroic Firelands, even if long after the fact and with far superior gear to what we had then. I want us to do it. Burnyou needs his staff, and we all need our titles, and our sexiness. I want us to schedule a time to do this, get together our best folks for a serious, focused night to go in and clear the place out.
This means we will be treating it not like old-content, but like a serious any-other-night-raiding night. This means full consumable buffs, this means A-Games and no dicking around. The reason we haven't done this yet is because I will not go in with anything short of our best group. I don't want alts. I don't want people who aren't going to take this seriously. I want the most interested, the best geared. I want to get it done.
Send me an in-game mail if you want to be a part. Thinking about doing this on a Friday night, but honestly Mondays we usually have either already cleared or have very little left to do in Dragon Soul. Please let me know when you will be willing to do this.
News & Updates - Thursday, Feb. 5, 2012
Holy shit, Yor'sahj down!
Okay, I know. There's no body in this screen shot. That's because after grueling weeks of fighting with various and sundry obstacles to progress, we were so excited to have finally killed this bitch that we all flitted off to Zon'ozz without remembering to take a screenshot. We remembered quick enough, but when we went back his body was already gone. Darn. He did drop some pretty sexy Heartblood Wristplates, which I got, and H. vanquisher legs. Not a bad haul, considering how bosses in this god forsaken instance love to drop useless, worthless shit.
Holy shit, 3rd in the world.
You'd all better duck, because Reygh is about to turn left, and he wouldn't want to smack any of you with his dick.
Well, third among those who were logging and among those who choose to upload to World of Logs. But still, impressive feat. Reygh logged combat for Ultraxion last week and after uploading it came out that among Unholy DKs, he was 3rd in the entire world. Too bad you didn't summon army, Reygh.
News & Updates - Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012
Holy shit, a website update.
Okay, I know. I'm a terrible person for not having updated the website in so long. I've been slacking like a loser on keeping DKP updated more often than immediately before a raid and I haven't been uploading logs at all, to say nothing of the fact that there hasn't been any kind of update to the site in over a month. I know. I'm a bad person. You can all kill me later.
Now that THAT'S over with...
The holiday season is officially and finally over. No more turkey, no more lazing around. Now that we've all had a goodly amount of time to dick around and relax, and stuff ourselves with all kinds of delicious holiday food, drink and otherwies be merry, it's time for us to get back in the saddle and start really killing some shit. We have done SOME things since the last update, so let's list them:
- We killed Madness of Deathwing!
- We killed Heroic Morchok!
- Abes got a job, holy shit.
- We found Jesus
- We then lost him again. Crap.
So, anyway, here is a kill shot from our Madness of Deathwing kill. Maybe soon I'll put up another kill shot of our Heroic Morchok kill, and hopefully soon again I can put up more kill shots of more heroic bosses. Stay tuned, and YOU'RE WELCOME for the update.
News & Updates - Tues, Dec. 6
Well, 7/8 ain't bad...
Welp, first week of Dragon Soul over, and due to some unfortunate circumstances involving the being-here-ness of certain players (which for some reason always seems to happen when it comes time for progression...), we only managed to get down 7 bosses. DRAT. But, hey, real life happens, I suppose, and I have a great team of great and talented players. So, let's not be disappointed about what we DIDN'T do, let us celebrate what we did do! We did a great job on Spine of Deathwing, we got the first half of the instance cleared in one night on our first night, and this coming week we will definitely see Madness defeated and move on to heroic next week. Let us just say we're pacing ourselves!
WebDKP "Reset"
Because the Web DKP page was getting rather cumbersome, all history prior to 11/28/11 has been taken off of the page. The old histories will persist in a separate page which will be accessible soon, but rest assured that I checked, double checked, and triple checked everyone's totals before deleting the previous loot histories -- your totals are correct. As I said, I will update the DKP page soon with a link to the old histories.
News & Updates - Tues, Nov. 30
Welcome to Dragon Soul!
And on we move into Dragon Soul with patch 4.3 for a rather successful first night of the new patch. Ah, and isn't it great to actually get to start new content on the day it comes out!
If you'll but glance to the left, you'll see just how successful. Three hours, four bosses. Not terribly shabby. Oooh, and we got LOOT! I don't really feel, though, like posting 4 bosses worth of loot in a news post, but I will say that Amaldril (that's me), got a shiny new mace - Vagaries of Time. We are looking forward very much to killing Ultraxion on Thursday, as well as clearing the entirety of normal within the week so that we can start on Heroic next Tuesday. Server-first Heroic Deathwing or bust!
Also, I recently reformatted my computer, so I don't have Photoshop installed yet. Enjoy the MSPaint screen shot.
News & Updates - Thurs, Nov. 17
Moving On
Well, there went one recruit who didn't pan-out. My front-page welcome of our good friend Shocantell turned out to be rather premature, as after speaking with him only a little bit further, it turned out that the guy was not only unexceptional, but probably didn't earn that gear he's wearing. (Either he got carried to it HARD, or (more likely) he purchased his character.) That would explain how he ended up on this crappy server, as I don't think anyone who ACTUALLY was serious about raiding would intentionally come to Malygos.
On top of that, we had to let go one of our founding members this week, most unfortunately. It should be known that I did everything in my power over the course of the last several weeks to try to communicate with this player and attempt to fix whatever his problem seemed to be, but it was to no avail. I hope everyone in our fine guild understands that I really had no alternative but to remove him. Just let it serve as an example, I suppose, to existing and prospective members that I don't care how long you've been with us, how good you are, or how good you think you are -- if your attitude becomes such a poison that your negativity is ruining raids, putting people on edge and generally becoming a massive inconvenience to me and as a result, to us all, I will cut you.
Goodbye, Wbfengdk. Sorry you went crazy.
New Recruits
For those who are new to the raid team and trying out now for a permanent spot, please make sure that you read this website thoroughly. I will be making many updates in the next week or so to the informative pages of the site, as our requirements have gone up since we started. It is good to have a little more diversity in our team, though, and I am hopeful about other new players. It is a good group you're joining, so give it your all! Seriously, though, read this website. If you couldn't tell, I've put a lot of work into it.
Organized PVP
I have recently recruited to our ranks a good friend by the name of Concussion who has volunteered to head up the initiative to get organized PVP going as a major aspect of Smoke and Mirrors. I will facilitate him in establishing and recruiting for rated battle grounds teams and organized guild arena teams. We have yet to sort out most of the details, but guild PVP will be taking place probably week-nights before raid (Probably for 2 hours from around 6PM server time to 8PM server time), and on off-raid nights during whateve hours it develops that people want to do it.
Once I get more details put together regarding expectations and requirements of the rated battle grounds, I will update the website with a section devoted to that information. It is my hope these will be structured and organized with the same level of attention as are our raids. So, come one, come all, and talk to either me or Concussion in game if you are interested.
News & Updates - Thursday, Nov. 10
General News
FINALLY, bosses decided to drop stuff that I actually need. No more 359 shoulders! I thought this was worthy of a news update. Here is an awesome animated GIF of Amaldril dancing in shiny new shit.
Apart from that, though, Tuesday's raid was just very highly productive. Other than a few mishaps, we had a flawless Domo kill and just really clutch performance from everybody on Baleroc. On top of that, we would like to welcome Shocantell to Smoke and Mirrors, newly transfered onto Malygos from a server undoubtedly better than this one. God knows, it wouldn't take much. At any rate, we look forward to getting to know you better and working together to beat the everloving shit out of Dragonsoul in 4.3.
Heroic Ragnaros, go!
Tonight we begin our first real night of attempts on the big man himself, Ragnaros. The fight looks like it is going to be ridiculous amounts of fun and an awesome challenge compared to previous heroic bosses. I do not know if we will be able to down him before 4.3 comes out, but we are certainly going to give it our very best shot. Hopefully with enough focus and determination on the part of our raid team, we will see Smoke and Mirrors sporting the very prestigious "Firelord" title before we go kick Deathwing in the face!
News & Updates - Tuesday, Nov. 8
General News
It has been a while (and by that I mean, it has been since October 27) since I made a news update. So, let's see. Nothing new to report on the front of boss kills. We have been recruiting to expand our raiding roster, though, as the last week we have had more real-life problems among a couple of raid members, and at least one who simply quit. So, I guess that's how things go sometimes. Oh well, live and let whatever. Some of the new folkeroonies look rather promising, though, and we are about to start running Normal Firelands with a second group Wednesday and Friday nights from 8:30PM-11:30PM, server time. I'd do 3 nights but I just refuse to raid 7 nights a week.
DKP Updates
I have made a change to the DKP page. Now, at the end of each week you will see a running total. This way it will be easier for people to look at their DKP and ascertain that the total is correct. IE, instead of having to add up everything from the beginning of time, you can just check at the end of each week and only have to add up since then.
USUALLY I am very good at recording DKP accurately, but as I may have mentioned, I'm doing it by hand and there's a lot of rows of text and numbers and I'm lylsdexic so sometimes things get scrambled. That's why I have always said that it is your responsibility to know what your total is at all times and that it is correct. Usually it will be, but I have been known to occasionally make a mistake.
On that note, I have spent a great deal of time this evening (it's 8 AM now and I haven't yet slept) totaling, checking and rechecking totals for all players, and have updated final totals to be accurate. I did find mistakes in my summations of several people, but rest assured that all are now correct. I do not believe that any of the discrepancies were severe enough to have altered the outcome of any particular loot auction.
Raid Member Evaluations
Starting at the end of November, I will be scheduling raid member evaluations for all players involved in the guild's "core" (heroic Firelands) raid group. During this evaluation I will party up with players individually to discuss their strengths and weaknesses, any performance concerns I might have, and to receive feedback from players about various aspects of raiding.
Players will receive a calendar invite for proposed day/time of the evaluation, which players must accept or decline. If you cannot meet at the specified time and decline invitation, please speak with me as soon as possible so that I may know your availability.
Through these evaluations, I hope to establish a better / more personal relationship with each raid member and improve, if I can, the quality of everyone's experience, help us work as a better team, and all of that jazz.
Smoke & Mirrors Guild Comic
This is an idea I've been having for a while. Lots of funny shit happens in our guild, but I just can't always remember most of it after having slept. So, if you happen to have an idea for a guild-related short comic, by all means, send an in-game mail to Amaldril describing your idea. I will pick one that I like, draw it up, and slap it on the website! And, of course, I will give you credit for the idea.
If you are an artist as well, then you can always feel free to just draw the comic yourself and give me a link to wherever you've uploaded it, and I will see that it makes the front page.
News & Updates - Thursday, Oct. 27
Player of The Week
Now, I don't usually go out of my way to make any particular player feel good about themself. Typically, to me, showing up to raid and doing your job is pretty much my lowest expectation, and as a general rule I think that you owe it to your fellow raid members and me to carry your weight. I expect everyone in our raid to be exceptional.
But very occasionally, I feel the need to commend someone on a job particularly well-done, and to recognize an individual's achievements.
In the original Smoke and Mirrors I had a kind of motto, which was that anybody, given the opportunity, could be exceptional at this game. I didn't think the solution to a mediocre player was to replace them, but to have more accomplished and experienced players help them, and teach them, and at least give them the chance to get better.
So, this week (although this probably ISN'T going to be a weekly thing... and by "probably", I mean "definitely") I would like to recognize a player with whom I have been raiding fairly continuously since about a month and a half before patch 4.2 came out: Aurinik.
Aurinik has had his share of raid-wiping screw-ups, and has certainly been derided by me on numerous occasions for things like stepping in traps, dying, failing to respond in a timely fashion. Truth be told, I have been far more cruel in my criticism of him than I am to anybody else. But, unlike many players, rather than getting angry at me for coming down hard on him for failure, he instead bent his will upon improving.
He is always prepared for raids. He takes criticism gracefully. He now does exceptional DPS and in fact leveled up, geared and prepared an entirely new character to bring variety to our line-up. On top of that, he must be more situationally aware than everyone else, and must know when things are going to happen by watching his own interface, because of his inability to be on Ventrilo.
He's a highly underrated member of our team, and I am proud to have him with us. Having been such a dick so often to him in the past, I felt the need to let him know by putting him up on a pedestal for a brief moment. Aurinik, good job. Don't let it go to your head.
DKP Compendium Updates
I made some updates to the Item Values section of the DKP Compendium regarding Living Embers and Crystallized Firestones. Now, the method to the madness of how Firestones are assigned/charged is there for all to read. You guys are lucky I love writing so much. Enjoy the wobsite, guys. I work hard on it!
News & Updates - Tuesday, Oct. 25
H. Beth'tilac Down!
This happened on the 23rd, as is evinced by the sidebar. That concludes the WoW-related portion of this news update.
Shameless Self-Promotion -- Go!
Did you know that I, the leader of the illustrious Smoke and Mirrors guild, am a published author? Well, I am a writer, at any rate, and my book is self-published, and chock full of pretty awesome short stories and excerpts of stories that I hope to one day in the not-so-distant future spin into a full length novel (or novels).
So far, feedback from virtually everyone who has bought and read the book has been 100% positive. If you enjoy fantasy fiction, I can pretty much guarantee that you will enjoy this book. If you like vampires, you will REALLY like this book. (Don't worry, though: it's not all about vampires.) It comes in hardcover with dustjacket, and as the first-ever published work by eventual best-selling author (me), get yours now before I take it out of print. I promise you, it will be worth more than you paid for it one day.
Also, that's my pen name. Anyway... Back to World of Warcraft.
News & Updates - Thursday, Oct. 20
I got a new picture to slap next to the news-update posts! Anyway, here's what's up in this week right now, just in case you were interested.
If you have not already, please head over and read the new section of our DKP Information on Performance Penalties. I said it was coming, but I had not previously written down exactly how deductions would accrue. So, here is in-depth information that I hope everyone will understand -- not just how the system is designed to work, but also why it is being implemented in the first place.
Furthermore, upon further reflection I've decided that the ability to gain an entire raid-night's attendance worth of DKP through donation of items was still slightly overpowered, so beginning next Tuesday the DKP Donation Cap will be lowered further to 50, down from 75.
News & Updates - Tuesday, Oct. 18
Heroic Alysrazor Down!
Well, H. Alysrazor is down. Not much to say besides that. She was easy. People got gear, and many good tiems were had. Here is the kill-video that I made. I edited out most of it because the phases are so repetitious and the video would have been quite long (not to mention boring) had I not. It was STILL really long, even with the bulk of it cut out, so... Enjoy it in fullscreen 1080p.
Asshole Mode: ACTIVATED.
Everyone involved in this raid needs to go and review our Requirements and refamiliarize themselves with the purpose of this raid. The purpose of this raid is to bring together players who are very serious about progression and want to raid in a fast-paced environment with high expectations and where each player is accountable for their performance.
This means that for you to be a member of this raid group, you will learn or... well, you will learn.
If you fuck up, you look at what you did wrong and you fix it, you don't make excuses about why you failed and you certainly don't get your panties in a bunch if the raid leader (that's me) calls you out on it. We are not progressing as fast as we should be because I have not been as hard on this raid's members as I ought to be, and I feel a sense of complacency has settled in over our once-motivated group.
So, what is about to happen? We are going to be commencing a policy of disincentivizing SUCKING. Consequences of sucking, henceforth, may potentially include:
- DKP Penalties
- Bidding Restrictions
- Replacement
- Trial-period Reinstatement
- Murder
- The Clap
- Looking Like A Dick
- Super Herpes
- Beatings about the Head and Neck With A Broken Bottle, If You're Lucky
- Sliced in Two With a Bread Knife
- And much, much more.
If you have an immediate issue with the idea of being penalized for ruining attempts with your unlearning curve, chances are you should examine whether or not you are the reason that I'm making this post. Instead of getting upset about it, stop FAILING and we won't have a problem.
That's all I can really think of for this Tuesday, October 18th. See you guys next week or at our next kill, whichever comes first.
News & Updates - Sunday, Oct. 16
We haven't had an update with a kill shot in a good long while, so I thought here I would put up a "Kill shot" of our latest Heroic kill - Lord Rhyolith!
As usual, our most-awesome hunter, Luba got himself a nice shiny Dreadfire Drape and Amaldril made off with Heartstone of Rhyolith. It was a victory longer in coming than we had intended, due to real life situations among various raid members, so it was good to get him down.
Next up, Alysrazor and then Beth'tilac. We are coming for you.
News & Updates - Thursday, Oct. 13
Well, it's been a while since I made a news update, so I thought since I actually made a change to the site that this would be a good time to make one.
Recruitment
First, it might be a good idea to address recruitment. We have opened recruitment for a tank to join our Heroic Firelands group. We are looking for a very specific kind of tank, one who fits all of our requirements and who can preform adequately in a DPS off-spec. We are primarily looking to recruit a warrrior, druid, or deathknight tank for this position, though a paladin would also be considered.
Progress
On the Progress front, it is unfortunate that because of some real-life mishaps among multiple members of our raid team, as well as some unpredictable internet connections at innoportune times, we were unable to progress last week as we intended. However, this does not mean that progres has taken a back seat nor that progression is not still our number one priority in Smoke and Mirrors. If you are looking for an amazing guild to call home and wish to raid in a fast-paced environment with high expectations, don't hesitate to inquire.
I will soon be adding a recruitment application to the website which interested parties can submit their candidacy through. Stay tuned for future updates regrading that.
DKP Donation Changes
If you are a person who frequently donates to gain DKP bonuses (and we appreciate you most wholeheartedly!) please stay tuned to the website to check for weekly changes in demand for various commodities before you make a donation. For instance, if you check now you will find that prices have changed since last week.
Additionally, the weekly donation cap has been lowered to 75 DKP, down from 100.
Updates - Thursday, Sept. 29: DKP and Stuff
Dear Raid People:
I'm still kind of tweaking with the table style but I have finished updating DKP and getting the compendium of information on it posted up in its completeness. I do think it is complete, but if you read it and you still have a question about it just ask me and I'll make sure to get it updated. Hey, it's a lot of stuff to remember to put down! DKP will go into effect (as far as distribution of loot goes) tonight. So, let's kill us a Heroic Rhyolith and maybe a Heroic Baleroc, eh?
Photo unrelated.
News & Updates - Tuesday, Sept. 27
Good morning, Smoke & Mirrors. Welcome to the GL's weekly Tuesday update. I don't know if I'll actually be making this news update on Tuesdays a "thing", but hey, it sure seems like a good idea, huh?
All last week was about chillaxin' and taking a much deserved load-off after sweeping Firelands Normal in one night on Tuesday, thanks to ridiculous nerfs. This week will be about killing Heroic Firelands Bosses, establishing a second raid team, Killing Dragons for Points, and other stuff. So, trying for brevity, let's dive right in.
Raid Team 2 - Go!
I very much want there to be a second raid team in Smoke & Mirrors. There are a lot of people, as I have said, interested in raiding and just not space in "Team A" so to speak. So please, if you are interested in being a part of it, please take to the Forum and take part in discussion about it. Tell me who you are, when you are available, whether or not you have raid leading experience, and basically anything relevant to the formation of that second group so that it can get going ASAP.
PTR Character Copy for FL Team
I am asking all players on the progression raid team to download and install the Player Test Realm and copy their main character over to it so that when new raid content is available for testing, we can start arranging to do it. Follow these steps:
- 1. Head to your Battle.net account page and click on the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm link under "Your Game Accounts".
- 2. At the bottom of that page, click on the Additional Services tab, and then click on Player Test Realm. On this page, you can copy a character to the test realm and download the client/installer.
- 3. You may copy a character to the PTR before the client is downloaded and installed. Making sure that you are logged out of the appropriate character and that it is carrying whatever you want to have on the PTR, click the Copy a Character link.
- 4. The realm that you want to copy to is Anasterian (US) (PvE). Make sure you select the correct realm.
- 5. Finish the download/install of the PTR Client and wait for the PTR to be set up, and further instruction.
I am not sure when precisely we will be taking time to raid on the PTR - we will see about that as the new raids are put up for testing and as we progress through Heroic FL.
Loot Distribution
After working with a kind of modified /roll system as well as trying to get people to corroborate about how loot is going to be allocated and toying with the idea of simply assigning loot myself, I have decided that the best way to deal with loot is simply to remove myself from the situation and implement an impartial system wherein players can, on their own, prioritize certain items over others and give them the means to obtain such items as they feel are immediately integral to their lives in a "now" kind of fashion.
So, starting this week, we will begin using a DKP system which I devised during Burning Crusade and which worked very well. I will add a page to the site today detailing how it works as well as a page where players can view their DKP total, loot history, and etc.
I will calculate starting DKP based on raid attendance over the last 4 weeks as per the calendar so that all raid members will have a tidy and equal sum to start out with, and previously looted items may be charged retroactively (I haven't decided yet). Please stay tuned for updates on this.
Guild Bank Policies
The About page will be updated to reflect new policies (or rather, newly enumerated policies) regarding weekly bank donation limits on resources and gold and guild activity rewards for active players. Raid members will be able to donate raid-essential commodities for DKP rewards up to a weekly cap, and each Monday the top 3 weekly contributors in guild experience will receive a DKP bonus equal to a percentage of their totals. Please be sure to check back later in the day/week for site updates.
News & Updates - Later Tuesday, Sept. 20
Great job everyone on a successful 1-night clear of Nerfla... I mean Firelands. The first 6 bosses made us cry by wallowing about in pits of despair and ultimately handing over loot to us, saying as they did "What's the point anymore? Just take it." and we then strolled in and drove the Firelord himself back into the depths of his magma-filled jacuzzi. It took us only 3 tries, and in less than our 3 hours we completed after 3-ish short weeks Firelands normal. We now prepare to set forth into heroic Firelands next Tuesday.
But no boss kill is a boss kill without some phat lewts being distributed, and Ragnaros, in his hurry to escape our fiery wrath, accidentally dropped a chest full of stuff in the middle of the room. Two Death Knights walked away with the shoulder and helm tokens, with the Mantle of the Fiery Vanquisher going to Wbfengdk and our first Helm of the Fiery Vanquisher going to Reygh. A beautiful Arathar, the Eye of Flame went to Luba and then there was some shaman crap that got vendored.
I am still looking for more people to form up a second raid group though its requirements and policies are still sort of foggy right now as I think of how to get it organized and going. All I know is that it will need tanks, and we do not have those to spare at the moment, so please if you happen to want to tank in a second S&M Firelands group, let me know in game and we will talk.
A Youtube video of our Ragnaros kill can be found here. Be sure to watch in in fullscreen 1080p if you can.
News & Updates - Tuesday, Sept. 20
Well, guys, it looks like Blizzard has done it again. It seems that no matter what I do, we have as yet been doomed to reach end bosses only to see them get nerfed into oblivion before we get a fair chance at killing them. Well, screw us for starting late, eh? I am very sorry, all of my people, that in spite of how rapidly we progressed through normal Firelands we still didn't get to Ragnaros fast enough to kill him before Blizzard decided to take the nerf bat to him.
Not like they even bothered waiting until 4.3 came out this time, either. But, I could go on for hours (and I have) about how !@#$ing retarded these nerfs are, but hey, it won't change anything. Everyone just be prepared to go in and kick the crap out of Ragnaros today so that next week, we can start kicking the crap out of heroic.
On a lighter note, in light of (no pun intended) the normal mode getting nerfed and also in light of the fact that there are a large number of people in Smoke and Mirrors currently who do not raid but would like to, I am currently considering the formation of a second raid team. It will be composed of those who don't meet the strict requirements for the progression Firelands team, but who are still interested in raiding. I do not currently know who will be leading this raid, but still wish to do Firelands. More on this in the near future.
And yes, by the end of this news post, I was just using the word "currently" over and over on purpose.
Also, you can check out all of the newest kill-videos for Smoke and Mirrors on our Youtube Channel. Just follow the link! Yes, I will have the video section of the website up and running eventually...
Video Update - How to Not Fail 2: Ragnaros Edition
You are required to watch this video.
Video Update - Majordomo Staghelm Victory
Here is the video that I put together of our Majordomo kill, for your enjoyment. I actually didn't start recording on our killing attempt until the Burning Orbs phase, so I sort of slapped the winning ending onto the preceding attempt's video. Turned out pretty OK, I think. The song is called And Then There Was Silence, by Blind Guardian. Don't you just love how people give me their suggestions on what music to use in the videos, and then I just use whatever I like? I get to do that because I paid for Fraps! Anyway, enjoy.
ALSO, I figured out how to get rid of the stupid billion mile wide black border around all my videos. Herpa derpa.
Take that, Fandral!
So, Ragnaros HAD a new majordomo. He really doesn't pick his lieutenants very wisely, now, does he? On reset day this week Smoke and Mirrors walked into Firelands and steamrolled the first 5 bosses and went into extra innings to down Majordomo Fandral Staghelm on first raid night of the week! You know what THAT means. It means the rest of the week is for RAGNAROOOOOOS!
Congratulations to Amaldril on a shiny new set of Jaws of Defeat, and to Luba on the guild's first Mantle of the Fiery Protector! Really great job everyone, and I look forward to posting up a kill shot of the head man himself very soon.
Yes, I know this picture isn't of Majordomo. But I thought this picture was way cooler than any of the kill shots so I used it instead. NEENER NEENER! Keep checking back for our sexy kill video.
Video Update - How to Not Fail at Majordomo
Okay guys. Since SOME of us (and I'm not going to say who) seemed to be having some difficulty with this concept on Majordomo this Monday, I decided to make this video of myself not-failing. This way you can all see what it's like to be me. I mean to not fail.
And as I state in the credits and also in the video's comments on Youtube, I know that it gets a lot more hectic during Burning Orbs. I'm just saying that here is the general idea that if you keep an eye on the boss's energy and start moving preemptively, or at least know that a leap could be coming, you can move in time to take little or no damage. Enjoy.
News - September 10, 2011
Check it out, guys. It's our Beth'tilac first-kill video! Actually kind of embarrassing because it went on WAY longer than it ought to have and was considerably less clean and beautiful than our first attempt. But, she died. That's what's important, right?
Recruitment Updates
Smoke and Mirrors would really like an excellent Warlock for our raid team. Please inquire with Amaldril in-game after checking out our requirements page if you are interested.
News - September 8th, 2011
And another one bites the dust! With Baleroc down, THERE'S NOTHING STOPPING US FROM KILLING RAGNAROS!! ....Wait, what do you mean he got a new Majordomo? We'll show THAT asshole. Little Majorodomo birdy, HIPPITY HOP, all the way to the birdy boiler! ...Ah, yes. Anyway. Hopefully, Majordomo Fandral Staghelm will drop something worth looting, because nobody else we've killed this week has.
Good job everyone. I will be updating the website more soon with lots more fun pics of our fine guild and videos of kills and all that great jazz.
News - September 5th, 2011
Smoke and Mirrors walked into Firelands tonight and smacked not one but TWO bosses in the face so hard that they spilled loot all over us like the giant pinatas that they were. I don't have a kill shot to put up yet, since the computer on which I raid is currently residing in a household with stable internet, but there will be both shots of Beth'tilac and Lord Rhyolith up soon.
Fat lewt recipients include Reygh, who waltzed off with Arachnaflame Treads from Beth'tilac and to Josiah for his new Fireskin Gauntlets off of Lord Rhyolith. The rest of the loot was either not upgrades for the recipients or it was offspec so nobody gives a fuck about it, and anyone who does can go soak their heads.
Back soon with updates.
In the mean time, enjoy this picture of our Alysrazor kill.
