News Forums Roster Charter Recruitment About Risen

[Archived News]

Final TBC Update

November 2nd, 2008

True Identity: M'uru and Entropius

Who or what is M'uru? What about Entropius? There is very little information out there regarding these mysterious beings that play a significant part in the lore associated with Sunwell Plateau. Of course, the lore of M'uru isn't really what's important to us regarding what we all enjoy doing. Raiding. To us raiders, M'uru and Entropius were many things.

A typical first M'uru kill had guilds making 300-400 pulls.

M'uru required a strict raid makeup with high performing players.

M'uru killed many guilds. Really. They disbanded or stopped raiding.

Beating the encounter once did not guarantee farm status from the next time on.

The gender of M'uru is unknown.

Now let's take a look at Entropius. Another mysterious entity. Supposedly the "void form" of M'uru after the wind chime form has expired. Pretty vague explanation of its existence, right? Who or what is Entropius, really?

Entropius was harder to take down than M'uru and his adds.

We squeezed out every little bit of dps for our first few kills.

The repeated wiping to Entropius made us delirious, leading to this theory.

What matters the most to us, is that he is dead. We got him/her/it/whatever on farm well before the greatest nerf of the century.

M'uru first kill - Aug 15th, 2008

Having M'uru/Entropius on farm was an accomplishment even Amandah was happy about.

Kil'jaeden, the Final Encounter

With a little bit of time left before the release of Wrath of the Lich King, we were in a good position to finish all of the content before the expansion landed. This is something we were unable to do before The Burning Crusaded launched, making it a motivator for the guild.

Members made serious and dedicated efforts toward our goal. We kept running old content such as Black Temple and Mount Hyjal to gear our newcomers. We added previous foes and legendary heroes to our ranks, and came up with brilliant plans.

Individuals geared themselves outside of raids

However, there were thing that were preventing us from getting solid work done on Mr. KJ. These are things like BF aggro and the economics of A games.

A bat (no doubt it was sent by Kil'jaeden himself) attacks Faewn while raiding.

Despite these hurdles, we got Kil'jaeden past the 55% mark, taking us into the last phase to master before taking him down. We were in the position for one final push to finish the content. Then came Blizzcon (which was a blast), and the patch followed right after.

While I realize that Sunwell was something only a small portion of the WoW population were able to see to the fullest extent, I am fully disappointed in the degree of the nerf the TBC raiding content has received. End game raiding has now turned into a place where one gets 25 people together and just blows through the content that many have worked months and months to master. This, I cannot agree with. I hope such a nerf never comes ever again. Why do I hate it so much? This means more, easier obtained epics, right? What's to be disappointed about?

The disappointment comes from the pride I have in the guild we have shown ourselves to be.

We raid with a casual schedule of 2 days a week, and have cleared content at the pace of a hardcore scheduled guild. We'd never be the world first, but we sure kept competitive. We've also shown ourselves that our drive to raid is not in the items we obtain, but in the joy of coming together, determining a goal, forming a plan, preparing for the raids, and defeating the encounters. This can be seen by the fact we did not allow the pressure of the upcoming expansion (which will once again make these items we get today less valuable at level 80) and the difficulty of Sunwell Plateau from preventing us from raiding.

Many guilds have called for a break until expansion, or downright fallen apart from these factors. We did not. I am proud to be a part of this guild once described by a wise man as such:

"Risen is a rare oasis of fun, fairness and focus in a relative online ocean of obnoxious whippersnappers."

-Bluepea

Although this sad change had taken place, this did not mean we'd stop raiding. We would have gotten Kil'jaeden down pre-patch if we have just one more weekend before the patch, but that's all water under the river now. We went and blew through Sunwell the very next raiding day we had.

Kil'jaeden first kill - October 17th, 2008

Here's a version of the screenshot for those who don't mind going blind.

Onto the Wrath of the Lich King

Well, here we are. Entering the Burning Crusade while in the middle of Naxxramus, we have caught up with raiding content (in Black Temple) and are going into the next expansion while caught up, as 3rd on the server in progression raiding. We have an advantage. We have raided throughout the Burning Crusade, clearing content at a pace exceeding the general public's expectation of a casual raiding guild. Going into Wrath of the Lich King while we are in full swing, will start us off with momentum.

This is made possible due to the dedication, committment, and the efforts each person has put in as well as the sense of humor, entertainment and shear fun each and every one of you provide. Really. Who wants to raid if it's not fun, right? This guild has always been, and continues to be, more than just a vehicle for individuals to obtain items and progress through raiding content.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Risen is what it is, and where it is, because of each and every one of you. I feel very lucky to be a part of this bigger picture that is Risen. Thank you.

We will no doubt be successful through Wrath of the Lich King, and continue to be the awesome bunch we are.