2009 begins!

First off, if you are one of the people who left GoV over the holiday season, fuck you very much.

As you can see, we're still in Naxxramas raiding. This was me (Avierra) and Azmuth tanking, Amihan, Brutusk and Plikta healing, and Rothgarth, Rizal, Grantilis, Silvertip and Malago on DPS. And yes, that is Patchwerk down - we took him down along with the entire Arachnid wing and Noth the Plaguebringer. One afternoon, we basically took a team of Naxx virgins and wiped out every boss we downed before you left. We didn't one-shot many of them, but these five bosses took us just over three hours. And we did it with a minimum of fuss, no Guild drama, or unnecessary chatter on Ventrilo.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I've been quite irresponsible where this blog is concerned - I haven't been posting (or publishing my draft posts) as I was snowed under by work last December and by social demands over the holiday break. I haven't been able to articulate properly the joy that was two weeks of raiding into Naxxramas. Loot or no loot, it was great to be raiding again. (Well, I got some loot.)

Then on Christmas day, the Guild leader decided he was tired of GoV and /gquit, taking with him three of his closest friends. Two more followed shortly after - all level 80s with extensive raiding experience. They showed up in the ranks of Sovereign minutes later.

I wasn't around ASTIG when this happened to them (a large number defected to HP) so this is the first time I'm experiencing this kind of betrayal. If I sound bitter, it's because I am. As with many things about GoV, this Could Have Been Handled Much Better. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and the fallout is that many of my favorite people were left hurt and hanging without any kind of consolation.

So. That drama is still unfolding, and I doubt we've seen the last of it. The important thing is that we're still intact - the Invasion continues, and with more of us hitting 80 we're looking at more and more Invasion-led raids in the days to come.

Happy New Year, indeed.