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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.