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Right after enjoying the conclusion to the FIFA World Cup competition the previous night, our mini-team popped into the recently opened Ruby Sanctum and tackled the singlular boss within, Halion.

A few previous attempts had been made but this night was the charm with a calm easy passage to a new FBK achieved under the usual auspices of our 'ZAT' approach.

Congratulations to those in attendance for this achievement made whilst we all had fun. Here's to the proper 25-player version of it to come!

Report posted by: Broliant.

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"Thou shall not fall." Those were the words ringing in our ears as we began the evening's raid after spending an afternoon remembering that vampire movies used to be great, you know, before Twilight and the new age of the 'man-love' vampire had dawned.

Thus, we sought to take our cues from the likes of the great vampires of old; the snarl of Snipes, the menace of Sutherland. Of course, there are great vampires about today to inspire our thoughts: the utterly terrifying Lina Leandersson was brilliantly scary whilst being every bullied 8yr-old kid's fantasy 'girl next door' in "Låt den rätte komma in." (aka: "Let the right one in.") In the midst of such company, the one they call 'R-Pat' is about as scary as Postman Pat and trust us, "that ain't scary!"

And so began our Thursday evening raid with a plan to take down Blood Queen Lana'thel. We'd come close the night before and it seemed within our grasp. We made a handful of attempts and then our primary raid-leader disappeared. I mean, he was right there one minute and suddenly, completely mid-sentence, he vanished before our very eyes. The raid freaked. We ran from that room like our very lives depended upon it. (Right after the tea break of course. We're still civilised raiders and nothing interrupts our regularly scheduled tea-breaks. We know our "Asterix in Britain" after all!)


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While dealing with our loss, Xén stepped in to assert a sense of calm and led us before Valithria Dreamwalker, further helping the team to regain its discipline by engineering the death of one of our two 'portal' healers. Everything rested on the shoulders of the princess. Could he (she?) pull us through all by himself? We murdered Blazing things and Suppressing other-things and ultimately it all became academic. Lung-breaking exercise for sure but more than rewarding enough for some!

Composure regained, everyone laughed when our primary raid leader reappeared just as suddenly as he had disappeared. No explanation was given and none was asked. Sometimes, when the secret love of 'R-Pat' hides within denying hearts, it's best not to enquire too deeply about the odd temporary disappearance. Well, that's what Indil told us anyway!

Back we went before the Blood Queen and quickly we resumed our efforts. We worked to master 'phase 2' for a while to ensure we kept people alive and avoided losing precious 'bites' from the team. Gradually, we succeeded in that effort.

We often had to chastise the slow-to-react, most commonly just after the heroism call when blood rushes to those places thoughts find harder to reach and no amount of shouting on vent can tear a rampant DPSer off the boss to stand closer to the other two kiddies whose brains have been 'red-linked' to his or her own. It's like "WTF, noob, MOVE!"


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Soon enough, we were surviving the cycle of phases and reaching enrage with ever smaller amounts of the Blood Queen's health left to remove. Machinations arose, wondering how to get the biggest DPSers bitten first, to maximise their "pure pwny" punching power. It was a problem easily solved.

With every duck now carefully aligned, we pressed ahead. All too quickly the final dance was upon us, the only thing between success and complete loss of mind being a combination of determined DPS and healing. Thankfully the tanks refrained from unnecessary kiting!

Mere seconds before disaster could arrive, the Blood Queen was successfully vanquished (that last word we use simply to allow ourselves a smile as we imagine a certain warlock reading this story aloud to himself!) and the girls and boys, they got some toys.

Having originally beaten the 10-man version of this encounter using our ZAT approach, it had ultimately only taken a further couple of evenings to perfect our execution for the 25-man fight, demonstrating nicely that the fun ZAT adds to our raids does not unduly impede our momentum.

'Sexy Sindy' is up next on the calendar of bosses between us and a shot at the King. Now, what movies can we watch for inspiration I wonder... Answers on a postcard to the usual address if you have any good ideas!

Report posted by: The Lost Boys (And Girls!)

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The Lich King has been defeated! It's a true story of how an elite special forces raid team went 'From Zero to Kingslayers' in just one evening! Do you want to know more?

According to my sources deep within the paddywagon council, Converge despatched a team of 10 scary individuals into the Citadel to stand in front of the Lich King and taunt him mercilessly.

Three members of that team were tasked with healing responsibilities but soon it became clear from the way that Rosi and Van were playing "spot the dead possum" that Jellie was just going to do all the healing by himself. He girded his loins apparently. (And that's why he's walking so funny today by the way!)

Even with this 'malarking' they beat previous records to reduce the fractious party pooper to a mere 19% of his health. Time for coffee said the raid leader and runners were sent out for refreshments.


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A little back-peddaling followed the break, probably due to nerves, over-eagerness and the subsequent effect of having drunk 27 double espressos earlier in the day. Take another break said the RL and again they paused.

First go back and suddenly the team are all "Boom Goes the Dynamite!" and down goes the Lich King like a big sack of spuds. Mind, at first the team thought that... but no, I can't reveal more details here without spoiling the very cool event that occurs here for those that have yet to see it. We're all about the "coolness of the surprise" so it's best to just believe us, it's way cool!

Remember too, Converge's raiders have progressed through Icecrown Citadel using our very special Zero Advance Tactics method which simply makes this achievement all the more satisfying. Our observations, our tactics, our execution. One Hundred Percent all Converge!

And when it comes to saying well done, one can hardly find better words than those provided by our very own Master Raid Leader who put it perfectly:

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A word of thanks from Epidemíc:

Just a quick thank you to all the people who put in the hard work on Arthas.

It has been a very hard encounter. Made even harder when having to discover our own tactics and learn the mechanics and the encounter.

Also a tip of the hat to all the people who had to sit out on those nights. It's an unforgiving encounter requiring exceptional player outputs. I understand it can be frustrating to have sat out, so i'd like to take a quick moment to acknowledge their personal sacrifices for the good of the guild as a whole and its progress and standing at the cost to their own personal enjoyment.

It now unlocks 10 man Hard Modes to the guild, along with better loot upgrades and prestige to the guild.

So again well done to all that were involved, in the raids or those that sat outside the raids waiting for a chance to help out.

We killed the freekin Lich king Baby!, Roll on 25 man!

(Epidemíc, Forums Post: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:23 pm)

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Disclaimer: Special buffs used for this kill.

This kill was achieved using the "Strength of Wrynn" buff, a buff that exists to reduce the challenge of the Icecrown Citadel encounters over time by increasing the potency of players within the Icecrown Citadel zone.

Upon its introduction, the buff increased various stats by 5% and this was increased more recently to 10%. It is expected to be increased again later this week to 15% and potentially to 20% sometime after that.

Converge retains the ambition to achieve a "pure kill" of the Lich King with the buff disabled (this is more tricky to arrange because it cannot simply be "right clicked" to remove) and will report back when and if such an achievement is made. The 'SoW' buff exists to enable a greater number of players to experience the thrill of killing the Lich King which we can now report with authority is an experience very much worth pursuing.

Details of the 'SoW' buff properties used during this kill:

Strength of Wrynn
Health increased by 10%.
Healing and absorption effects increased by 10%.
Damage dealt increased by 10%.

Report posted by: The "Good News" Guy.

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"Good News Everybody!" Professor Putricide is dead. Last Thursday our 25-man team spent the major portion of the evening learning and practicing the fight, combining the knowledge we'd gained in the 10-man proxy version of the encounter with our observations of where the 25-man version differed.

With those concepts relatively sorted, we made good progress and ended that evening having been able to get the Professor into his final phase several times.

Our Sunday evening raid picked up immediately where the Thursday raid left off. A couple of attempts were needed to bed-in a couple of new faces who'd not been present last week and then the HP started dropping.

At the 2-hour mark, a reported 1% wipe came just before our standard bio-break - the much appreciated pause in an evening's proceedings where the RL gives a few moments of reprieve for the team to grab some refreshment, answer a call of nature or perhaps even to attempt to remind a loved one that we still care with an affectionate splash of attention... before we return renewed for the remainder of the raid.

The break also saw the arrival of "The Princess", a rare and near-legendary creature whose dependence on pomp and ceremony is oft-mocked in good spirits. As one might imagine, adjustments must be made to your raid team if you plan to accomodate a real living breathing princess.

Thus spake Epidemíc when he gently informed the birch-slapping specialist of tree-melee known to all by his nom-de-plume, "The Hoover," that his healing services were now 'excess to requirements.' Whilst all made a fuss over the Princess in the hope of gaining favour, one sad lonely tree shuffled slowly towards the exit.

The slight gloom was immediately punctured though with the arrival of a green-horn rogue, conveniently able to jump into the raid and fill the moribund druid's place.

As a matter of fact, the appearance further fuelled rumours being kindled of late by a belief that these two characters have never been seen in the same place, at the same time together and therefore, maybe, just maybe, the mild mannered rogue-by-day could actually be a secret alter-ego of "The Hoover". But then again, last week they all thought the same rogue was maybe, just maybe, "The Morris Dancer." Probably, he just has "one of those faces."

Masters Seiyru and Thorgarn shared the bulk of the responsibility for taking the professor by the hand and leading him around the room in their own brand of all-male "just don't ask" seduction routines. Epi planned to join them in phase three but needed a stiff drink first to settle his nerves. Luckily, his needs were met as large quantities of Appletini would periodically pour onto the laboratory floor. Epi was not too proud to get down and personal with a straw, thirstily finishing every last drop.

In the meantime, Finny found fame for a while by listening to his favourite Apache Indian track "Jump Around" which, whilst somewhat catchy and toe-tapping, does tend to result in premature death quite a lot. New warlock Acesouthall seemed to be feeling the beat as well. Possibly he might have survived though if only his Candy Mountain would have dispensed bigger sweeties...

Banasea and Slynaocrown had been trading tips on the very best way to run and gun. Both raced to the top of the charts to show that hunters could DPS if you stopped teasing them. Sal found a stash of lens-cleaning cloths for his spectacles and the improved vision meant he managed to hit the boss with nearly double the number of fireballs as usual. If he only had 20:20 vision, one wonders how far ahead in the meters he might pull?

Humpti went all 'combat', most likely due to a growing fear of Xen after having been party to the "bleed effect nagging campaign" of 2010. Thankfully, any discord being sewn among the team members is being countered however by the extra-family feeling that the "Papa Party" has brought to the guild. With the party now comprising in excess of one thousand main and alt characters, Converge is slowly being overtaken and may soon have to be rebranded as the "Papa-Han-Scarf Raiders," or something.

As you've no doubt guessed, because we already told you this once, the Professor died shortly after the break demonstrating that a well marshalled raid team works best with a hot drink, an empty bladder and the memory of a recent warm embrace firmly in mind. You'd do well to heed the lesson if you came here to learn our most secret tips and tricks.

To our many fans, we'd like to thank you all for your fervent support as you cheered us on through the learning of this fight. Your encouragement kept us on the path to last night's glory. If you're not up to much tonight, we'll probably be raiding again you know...

Report posted by: The "Good News" Guy.