It required a little more and it took a lot longer, yet after some raid extensions and enough wipes to hide a damning hard drive, War Machine jumped ahead of the curve.
It’s very much a tango sort of fight with proper steps to be made, where you dance with an Old God and intentionally trip him over your clumsy feet causing deliberate head trauma and finishing up with a coupe-de-grace of a giant laser from nowhere right to the face.
Romance.
With normal well and truly handled, War Machine has turned its attention in earnest towards heroic, continuing the light progression started in parallel to the normal runs. Once stagnant at three and four bosses down due to time restrictions giving limited attempts to the later bosses, we now have stamped out three more bosses, doubling our progress in a matter of weeks.
As we juggle extending lockouts with just killing earlier bosses quicker and cleaner, the War Machine surges on – the first hurdle was Hive Mind, presenting some minor bugs to squash before dropping like flies. Second on the list was a surprise win from the underdogs in a scintillating soccer session against the amplified version of team Xanesh, featuring the Oblelisk All-stars.
Finally, the same-but-different Ra-den, after being pushed again and again to the very last of his life, succumbed to the resilience of a couple of raiders surviving just long enough to trickle down the last few million hit points. It wasn’t a clean fight, it wasn’t something you’d write up as a tactic, but there was loot and therefore celebration.
Well done War Machine and Co. for persevering through some close calls, and a special mention to those who made it until the very end to secure the kill; in particular a sole-surviving hunter who almost sat out due to injury.
It’s almost a two-part fight with an intermission. First, the Fury, a wild chase through N’zoth’s internals, warts and all. Why does he retreat into his shell? Nobody knows. He’s the last of his kind, perhaps it is loneliness and fear that drives the Fury?
Whatever the reality – War Machine opened the carapace up and faced the little version of the big guy himself… inside a very large, rather empty chamber. And despite the shortage of toilet paper, we wiped and wiped over one and a half nights.
The paranoia was potent and our sanity slipped ever down. Our thoughts were laid bare and harvested. Until, finally, something magical happened and not one, not two, but three Pyschus phases were completed. The door that was agonisingly ajar for so long had been kicked open. N’Zoth was so very hittable and hit him we did.
Well, right up until we went insane, got snapped out of it by a diamond dwarf and then became a conduit for a Deathstar-like beam of azerite and -poof – N’zoth no more.
Thank you to everyone who has been coming along to the raids and for persevering through the final boss. I had no thoughts when I first joined War Machine that I’d be tanking again, let alone raid leading. It has been a pleasure and delight starting and finishing this tier – something I haven’t done with a guild for almost 15 years.
And now we get to do it again. Maybe even on a higher difficulty! That’s why N’Zoth had no chance – we’re already insane.
Want to be a part of this insanity? Submit an application! You don’t even have to raid (more raiders would be awesome though)!
It’s a new tier of an expansion in its twilight, new faces have arrived and old ones gone into the night. The War Machine, with a little bit of oil and lick of paint, marches on.
With Azshara defeated and a new season upon us, War Machine has ventured into the insanity inducing N’zoth’s home city and taken the fight to end his corruption, while taking advantage of being corrupted. It doesn’t have to make sense, it’s probably just another vision.
To recap here’s an abridged story of progress thus far:
Wrathion, wrathioff.
Prophet Skitra spoke too soon, Maut ran out of mana boon.
Inquisitor Xanesh got the boot; Hive Mind collectively gave up loot.
Vexiona to vex no more and Ra-den is Ra-done and out the door.
Down below, Shad’har rolled over; Drest’Igath was addressed and wouldn’t you know it, Il’gynoth was made organic.
Here we sit at 10/12 Normal mode (we’ve also done 3/12 Heroic), staring at the collosal figure of N’zoth himself, and entering his… mind, or something. The Carapace awaits!
Meanwhile…
There is slow change happening at War Machine as we look to the future and keep the guild happily chugging along. The first of these is an eventual update of the website to uppercut it into 2020, filling it with activity that better reflects the activity and activeness of the guild in Battle for Azeroth (and Shadowlands). The second and most fluid change is YOU, the person reading this not already in the guild – that’s right, War Machine is recruiting. Come in and join the super serious selection of superstar raiders and prepare yourself for hundreds of wipes every night… just kidding. We don’t do that. War Machine is a guild that raids, not a raiding guild.
It’s fun, casual and the only demand is that you are mature (well…) and don’t own any drama llamas. Check out the recruitment page on the site and fill in the form to be noticed – it does get checked. Be sure to make yourself available for contact after applying!
War Machine raids Wednesday and Thursday night starting at 2030 AEDT and ending at 2230 AEDT.
There are also weekend Mythic+ runs, and fellow guild members are always around to offer help. It’s a neat place to be. See you out there!
Hi all,
Some of you may have noticed that the progression raider rank has been reset to member for everyone involved in Nighthold’s progression team. We’re trying something a little different this expansion where by for each raid tier we’re going to re-confirm interest in this type of run. To this end there is a forum post entitled [Prog] Tomb of Sageras where I would like everyone still interested in being at part of progression to post the following:
–
– Main Character
– Primary Spec
– Any additional viable and well played specs
– Alts that would come close your main for performance and their relative specs
–
Just a reminder that the progression night is for people who are wanting to stretch their legs a little in terms of raiding, which includes a more serious evening of focus on downing bosses. The intent of this team is to carve our way through new content which is proving difficult for War Machine to down. This means you need to be prepared for long nights on the same boss until the job is done. There is more detail on the expectations in our [Book of Knowledge] however if you have any questions please contact me or one of the other officers in game.
We’ve been doing Mythic lately however this is largely due to not having any new content to do, though given how people are enjoying it at the moment it may be something we ultimately end up doing after AOTC is achieved for the guild.
–
Few things to remember:
– Playing the role you want to play? Sure… if it fits our needs
– Language… yeah, we take the filters off a little for that night so don’t be surpirsed if things are a little more blue than usual. Not a lisence to go ham, only the understanding that difficult content can bread the need to vent once and a while.
– Making mistakes? No one is going to swear at you, but you could be called out for something that needs fixing. Also, if you show up to this run without gems and enchants you’ll get the kick real quick. I mean common… the type of people signing up for this wouldn’t really need to be asked to do that in the first place would they?
– Fun? Not allowed
– Killing the boss? Priceless….
–
This run is not in any way exclusionary. Everyone is eligible to sign up for this event. We just want to make sure the expectations are clear up front so you know what you are getting in to and that you feel comfortable in this raiding environment.
– Bannox
As many of you already know we are going through a change in management. Dakhan, our current GM, is taking a break from leading the guide in order to focus on RL. Although Dak has done his best to be available in Legion he simply has not found the time or desire with real world events in the way. Importantly Dak does not want the guild to suffer as a result of his attendance. I myself was the previous co-GM with Dak until the end of MoP where I did much the same thing, and now as then I will not be picking up the GM responsibilities until RL is more accommodating. Although you might think running a small guild of fairly self sufficient people is no great feat, I can assure you there is much more to it than simply running around with the GM rank. It requires a lot of attention and can be quite draining if you are not in the right headspace for it. Dak will likely be back one day but for now I say ‘enjoy the rest bud… we’ll see ya in a bit’.
The officer team has been in discussions about replacements and have come up with a solution. From this Saturday (barring any major changes) Eiellith and Pandora (a.k.a Zesh) will be sharing the responsibility of leading our guild. Once they take over there will no doubt be a re-organisation of our structure in terms of responsibilities, such as recruitment, website updates, bank/material management, etc… If you have a burning desire to be a part of the guild management contact Eie or Zesh.
Dak, I, and the rest of the officer core a fully supportive of this change, however we are a guild of many voices… if you have any thoughts, concerns, comments, please contact either myself of Dak, preferably before Saturday.
With the above comes another slight change. Since the beginning of the expansion we have been asking for alternative raid leaders to support me in leading our two main raid nights. We are now moving ahead with that. Eie and Zesh will be arranging for a replacement raid leader for the regular Wednesday and Thursday runs while I will be retaining leadership of the Monday progression event and any brand new content as it arrives while early WM ‘strats’ are decided. Part of the reason for retaining these runs is that generally people don’t like leading new content (I do though… super fun). Again, if anyone has any issues or is keen on giving raid leading a go, you can let Eie and Zesh know. If you are keen on running a raid and not sure what this entails, rest assured I’ll provide support during the transition (in other words you’re not going to be thrown in to the deep end). I will still be available to lead Wednesday and Thursday if needed on an adhoc basis, however I have been leading raids for WM since the end of Wrath, barring my break at the end of MoP, so it’s probably time for a little rest.
I know you’ll join me in welcoming Eie and Zesh to the GMships… but try not to give them a hard time day one!!!
– Bannox
If you’ve not heard of Secret Santa before, this is how it works: people that want to participate sign up. Then, each person is randomly given the name of one of the other people that signed up to get a gift for. Everyone gets a gift from someone, but they don’t know who it’s from. This means people can anonymously give silly and fun gifts without anyone knowing who the giver was. Once your gift is ready for your assigned partner, you pass it on to a neutral party who then gives them out at an assigned time with all presents.
Sound like fun? It sure is. If you want to participate, all you need to do is send an in-game mail to Pandora to let me know. There are a few rules, though:
You’ll need to sign up for the event by Tuesday the 1st of December so that we have time to randomly determine the matches and get prepared. You’ll be told of your partner by the 3rd of December, and you can then begin your hunt for the perfect gift!
Once your gift is prepared, send it in an in-game mail to Pandora, making sure to indicate who the gift is to in your mail message, by the 10th of December. We’ll then hold a gift-giving event on Saturday the 12th of December at 8:00pm Server Time.
Remember, this is all about fun, so let’s make it as fun as possible!
-Zesh
For more information on how to enter please click here
Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? Do you think you have what it takes to be crowned War Machines inaugural Azeroth Survivor? If so, then come and join us on 20th and 21st of June for our first annual Survivor event (8.30pm kick-off time, running about 2 hours each night)
You’re probably wondering how all this is going to work. Basically, everyone will be divided up into 3 tribes. You’ll all be provided with coloured shirts, which is all that can be worn during the course of the event. After that, everyone will be given summons or mage portals to the various challenge areas where you’ll compete against the other tribes on Day 1 and against each other as individuals on Day 2
Following each event someone will be eliminated from the game via a raid roll, until eventually we have 1 person left
So, what sort of challenges will there be?
There’ll be some pvp in Gurubashi Arena, naked raids and dungeons, trivia quiz, cross country races and more!
So what do you get for winning?
For coming first there’ll be a prize pack containing a bunch of goodies, including some gold and a mount. For everyone else there’ll be random prizes given out after each event for the winning tribe, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to get something over the course of the event
So what are you waiting for?
Sign up in game, and come join us for fun times!
– Zeshiku
Current content update by Bannox
I am a strong believer in expectations being the prime variable in fun times vs not so fun times. To ensure we all have the most fun times with current content it’s important to have the right expectations. As with all previous expansions we are revisiting expectations for current content. To set the scene for War Machine in Warlords I’ve broken down details and expectations into the following areas:
Core Raiding:
War Machines standard raiding nights with a focus on fun ahead of progression. It’s a casual evening with a few guidelines to ensure no expectations are broken. This is the best place to learn the raiding environment, get familiar with a class or spec, and hang out with your guildy pals.
Progression Raiding:
Higher expectations of individuals in the realm of fight knowledge, raid awareness, character/spec expertise, and execution skill. This event is where we prioritise the downing of bosses. Very much fun times but with an element of masochism, certainly not for everyone.
The Challenge Mode Team:
A group of a few individuals committed to getting golds and server best times in Challenge Mode dungeons. This content requires a high level of execution, awareness, timing, class mechanic knowledge, and patience. Also you’ll likely need alts for this event as Challenge Mode characters are specifically geared and specced for the content. Details here – This is linked to the previous Challenge Mode information for Mists which is still applicable. If you would like the rewards (maybe not gold) that come with this event but don’t want to put in the hard yards we’ll likely have guild silver runs at some point. To sign up for CMs please visit here
Difficult Content Support:
These are events such as co-ordinating world boss guild kills, running Leeroy and Croman follower runs, getting people through Challenge Mode silvers (for the mount), etc… This is largely dealt with on a case by case basis and by request. If you are wanting to get some of this done please contact one of your raid leaders.
A further expansion on requirements and a helpful guide for getting prepared to raid is in the ‘Are you ready to raid’ document, which has been updated for Warlords.
What is happening next?
As of 1st January 2015 raid events have been set for Thursday with additional ADHOC runs when people are available. This is not the standard for War Machine as we believe that ADHOC runs in the long term do more harm than good. There will be enough raid events to ensure everyone gets their fill of current content. Beginning the week of the 12th January 2015 a new raiding cycle will commence.
Please see the Weekly Schedule for Details
As with anything in War Machine the fun we have is more important than the plan laid out. This current roster may be subject to change depending on raid numbers and people’s preference/availability. Blank nights are free to a good home if someone wants to setup alternative events.
If you have any questions, concerns, comments, thoughts, additions, or anything else I haven’t thought of please let me know via whisper, PM in the forums, in game mail, Gmail (bannox@gmail.com), or on Mumble.
Raid Leaders or Wannabes please visit Here
– Bannox