It's safe to say that the guild died out after we finished Heroic Jaina in the Battle for Dazar'alor raid. The expac fatigue hit our guild like nothing before it, and effectively ended Icrontic's continual AOTC run that started back in Mists of Pandaria. It was a genuinely amazing experience raiding with you all, and reading back through some of the memories and retrospectives almost brings tears to my eyes.

While the end of BFA was bad enough, 2019 and 2020 brought lots of tragedy and life-shattering events to the Icrontic community, not to mention the first-ever cancellation of in-person events. Needless to say, it's been a really rough time for Icrontic in general, and the WoW guild could not survive the barrage.

2020 has been a shit year for a lot of people, and this long winter and spring seems to be looming ahead, with more pandemic-related lockdowns coming and an unknown future for possible vaccinations.

The thought has been brought up: WoW is not a bad way to pass the long winter months, especially with friends.

Luckily, Shadowlands—at least so far—seems promising in terms of getting people interested in the game again (and more importantly, keeping that interest). A few people have been logging in regularly and playing again, and while many of our core members have floated away to other more active guilds, there's no reason we can't rebuild the group yet again (we've done it twice before, nearly from scratch).

All that is to say, I'm thinking of dusting off the Icrontic badge and getting back to raiding and pushing content again, if there's enough interest. So far, a small group of us are discussing pushing into Torghast together, and it seems like the interest is there for some Mythic dungeons again.

Is there enough of us to start talking about tackling Castle Nathria (the first raid)? Let's open the floor to the possibility. Who's with me?

For raid night planning: Please select whichever nights you are available (at least two).

For raid roster purposes: Fill out this spreadsheet.

MOP album here

WoD album here

Here's Kethark in his class hall

Here's his armory page

HISTORY:

Icrontic was a Horde guild from the beginning. When Cata launched, I stopped playing and I handed the guild over to the most active players at the time. They moved the guild to Kel'Thuzad and switched to Alliance because that was where their friends were. However, none of those people play anymore.

There were a lot of Icrontians who weren't happy with the move but the guild survived. When Myrmidon decided to re-sub, he convinced me to come along. We got the old GM to hand the guild back over to me and we continued on as Alliance. The guild of today is a mix of people we met along the way as well as people who have been here all along.

There has always been an undercurrent of wanting to move back to the Horde where everything started. Because I am the guild master, I have become the mouthpiece for all the whispers and discussions I get asking over the years "can we move" "will we move" "I want to move", etc. The question has come up many, many times over the years and the pressure mounted enough to the point where I started discussing it with the officers and the end result was a vote and now a move.

LOGISTICS:

We will be moving Tuesday, October 17th, 2017, some time in the evening. YOU ARE FREE TO MOVE BEFORE THIS; just know that the actual guild and the structure (e.g. Kethark) will be moving on that date. We currently have a holding guild on Thrall named "Not Icrontic", just to gather the troops. There is an expeditionary force of a handful of people who have already moved or rolled new toons to get acclimated to the new digs. This group is small but very willing to help gear, quest, answer questions, etc.

The per-character transfer fee is $55: $25 for transferring to Thrall and $30 for a faction change. We are instituting Icrontic Communism to help with fees; this means that if you can pay for your own way, please do. If you cannot, no problem, we can help. We are offering $50 blizzard gift cards to those who simply cannot afford to move, hoping you can pick up the stray $5+taxes (if applicable). If you truly can't afford the extra, we'll pay for the whole thing. Please don't abuse this by asking us to pay for all your alts and bank toons. We'll help pay for mains.

There is a 250k gold per character limit, and a 10 million gold guild bank limit. If you have more than 250k gold to move, you can deposit your excess in the guild bank and withdraw it when we arrive. We have a spreadsheet to account for this. Let me know if you want to utilize this method to move gold.

On the day of the move, the guild will be deleted from Kel'Thuzad. Anybody in the guild will be released and become guildless. Unfortunately there is no in-game method to notify people who haven't logged in for a long while about the move. We will have to rely on this post, discord, or friends lists to guide people to the new server.

Once Icrontic is re-established on Thrall, the guild Not Icrontic will be deleted.

FOR THE HORDE

We've come to that time when the waning days of the current expansion make regularly scheduling raiding redundant and burdensome.

With even further waning attendance to raids and with June and July being busy vacation/event/travel months for people, it looks like we may put regularly scheduled raiding on pause until BFA raids are here. I would still like to run normal and maybe even heroic a few times before August so we will consider Thursday 8pm EST and Sunday 8pm EST to be "maybe we could raid" timeslots instead of "we are raiding - oh shit nobody showed up and I cancelled plans to raid so this sucks". If you want to run Antorus on your main or alt for whatever reason, tag Warcraft here and it's possible you'll magically get a group together on our normal raid slots.

Legion raiding has been a joy with you guys and girls: From our epic high moments of our first progression-level mythic kill in Nighthold, to our absolutely epic heroic Odyn kill (BEFORE THE NERF), from struggling on Trilliax to the well-oiled machine we became on Mistress Sassypants, Kil'Jaeden, and Argus. We've made tons of memories in Legion raids this past year and they've been awesome. Don't forget how much Charshie loved those electric jellyfish and pulling "Swift-style" before Eonar. Oh, and how many times Rex would RAGE because someone tripped the ghost traps before the Sisters... And never forget how sad Jimmy would get at the corruption of Ursoc

I am super looking forward to making a bunch of new awesome memories with this team in Battle for Azeroth. Thank you all for being such a huge part of my life. I love you all! Run M+ with me until BFA thanks bye.

What were your favorite Legion memories?

TLDR: It's not as bad as I expected it to be, but it is SEVERELY flawed. There are things I really liked and things that make it hard to take this film serious.

What I liked:

The CGI and SFX
This was something that worried me from the very beginning of this movie being announced. However, they really pulled it off in the end and it looks incredible. The motion capture is exceptional, the orcs are truly beautiful and the details they packed in are captivating. I especially loved how they crafted the hair. It moves very well and gives the orcs such life. The environments are also gorgeous and immediately recognizable. Seeing Ironforge is really exciting. The Dark Portal is particularly looming and scary. Dalaran looks great from what you get to see in the establishing shot, but unfortunately you don't get to see the city from the street level.

Lothar and Khadgar:
I was really happy with these castings. They both perform really well on screen. It's fun to watch Khadgar as a young mage, bopping around Azeroth. Lothar is serious, but provides a moderate level of humor (I attribute this to Travis Fimmel's personality, similar to his role as Ragnar in Vikings on the History channel). He really only struggles when forced to interact with his son or Garona (see below).

Orcs:
The orcs are wonderful. The acting from every single orc is convincing and a thrill to watch. The orc scenes are hands down my favorite part of this movie. The fight scenes are brilliantly choreographed and exciting.

The music:
It's unique to the movie, but familiar. It felt like it fit in with the universe the games have established. The score really helps to elevate some of the cheaper aspects of the film.

Easter eggs:
There are a few fun easter eggs for fans to find that gave the whole theater a few chuckles. It was a nice and they didn't disrupt the plot.

What I hated:

The editing:
This movie feels choppy as fuck. The transitions from scene to scene feel cheap. They do not feel as connected as they should and it's jarring. The movie jumps around a lot. This is due to having to explain so many things in such a short time. As a result, scenes are fairly short and leave you scratching your head a bit.

The Romance:
Just why? It's awkward, half-baked, and a major waste of screen time. No surprise I hated it.

Lothar's son:
He serves no meaningful purpose. No character development. Boring actor. Weak subplot. They kill him off as fast as he's introduced. You won't care much; I didn't.

Humans:
Honestly, most of the humans in this movie feel more fake than the CGI orcs. I'm not a fan of the casting. It seems like the actors are trying to be far more royal and proper than necessary.

Lukewarm opinions:

The plot:
It's not entirely awful, but it's not great either. I intentionally tried to view this as if I had no pre-existing knowledge of the universe. For the most part, the story is clear and fairly easy to follow. Gul'dan is nutso, wants to bring orcs to Azeroth, needs fel to do it, Medivh helps, heroes need to stop him. There's just a lot of extra gunk slapped in there that distracts and could have been used to elaborate more on what actually matters. Many times you just have to accept that something is the way it is without explanation. For example: Llane calling upon The Guardian at the request of a panicked, non-credible young mage, Medivh's evil motives, Garona siding with the Alliance so easily. These are not major plot holes, you can just shrug them off, but I found myself rolling my eyes a few times.

Dialogue:
I find the way everyone refers to Medivh as "The Guardian" over and over quite exhausting. Maybe it's simply the delivery from the actors, but it starts to feel cheesy to me.

In the beginning, Garona speaks in a somewhat broken common-tongue, that she apparently picked up from a prisoner upon entering Azeroth (I guess I'll buy that for the sake of pacing), but by mid-movie her sentence structure is perfectly human. Her vocabulary has expanded in a matter of days...it annoyed me.

Costuming:
The orc armor was probably the best and most accurate representation. The humans however, felt off. The designs felt true to Stormwind, but everyone was far too pristine and clean. None of the costumes for the soldiers felt "lived in." I also hated the royal aesthetic they applied to King Llane, it appeared "plasticky".

Polygon has an extensive write-up of what will be different

• return to the roots of Horde v Alliance
• new feature "islands" that will be PvPvE, ever-changing content and challenges
• new advanced AI for a more challenging PvE experience
• New horde and alliance sub-races
• New continents: Zandalar and Kul Tiras
• Horde has lost Undercity
• Teldrassil has burned to the ground
• Expansion storyline starts in Arathi Highlands

Confirmed: Sylvanas and Manduin are more attractive than they've ever been

Here are two builds. You can choose the one that you like best, but you should apply it to all champions in your roster.

Meatball is the best 7th champion for every class.

SUCCESS BUILD:
Slot 1: Memento of the Lightforged > Wakener's Bauble > Boots of Efficiency
Slot 2: Memento of the Lightforged > Wakener's Bauble > Boots of Efficiency
Third Slot (Time): Writ of Holy Orders > Satchel of Lucidity > Carrot on a Stick
Third Slot (Counter): Xenic Tincture (Hazards) = Runeward Lightblade (Spells) = Lightburst Charge (Minions) > Shadowguard Void Effusion (Hazards) = Impervious Shadoweave Hood (Spells) = Shadow-Soaked Stalker Heart (Minions)

This build stacks +success% in the first two slots. The third slot has some options:
1. Give a hazard, spell, minion counter to one champion each. Other 3 with time reducers.
2. Give hazard/spell/minion counter to two champions each.
3. Give all champions a time reducer.

BALANCED BUILD:
Slot 1: Memento of the Lightforged > Wakener's Bauble > Boots of Efficiency
Slot 2: Xenic Tincture (Hazards) = Runeward Lightblade (Spells) = Lightburst Charge (Minions) > Shadowguard Void Effusion (Hazards) = Impervious Shadoweave Hood (Spells) = Shadow-Soaked Stalker Heart (Minions)
Third Slot (Time): Writ of Holy Orders > Satchel of Lucidity > Carrot on a Stick

This build puts +success% in the first slot, a counter in the second slot, and a time reducer in the third slot. Make sure that each counter (boss/hazard/spell) is on two champions each. Versus the Success build, success% will not be as high for the Balanced build, but you may get faster mission turnover.

Earlier today I decided I would make some wallpapers designed around my favorite artifacts and their appearances from Legion. Cause I'm a customization nut, and love the way some of these things are designed. Then thought, "Why not see if anyone else wants some. I could use the practice."
So here we are.

If you are interested please comment according to the following form, or at least post something like it. Multiple requests are allowed.

"Class Spec"
"Artifact Name" - Choose the specific appearance name.
"Color Scheme 1-4" - 1 through 4 from left to right according to the in-game/wowhead interface
"Screen Dimensions"

Example:
Windwalker
Al'akir's Touch
Color Scheme 4
1440x900

These wallpapers will be done in an abstract/minimalistic style. i.e. I'm not gonna draw characters wielding these things. Focus will be in the weapons, their color schemes, and key design elements. My avatar is an example of my style of work.
If you need help with the specifics, I'm following the way they appear in-game and in WoWhead's Artifact Calculator.

To Do list:
Fists of the Heavens - CS1
Al'Akir's Touch - CS4
Sheilun, Staff of the Mists - CS2
Toll of the Deep Mist - CS1
The Dreadblades - CS1
Talonclaw - CS1
Eagle's Rebirth - CS1

KIL'JAEDEN IS DEAD.

Very, very proud of this guild tonight Another raid tier, another Ahead Of The Curve

I'll start off the thousand years of pain and suffering...

Gul'dan finds out that when they said 'green energy' they meant renewable, not Fel. Gul'dam.
Gul'dan finds the sands of Tanaris far too hot. Gul'fan.
Gul'dan invites all his friends over for a big party. Gul'fam.
Gul'dan has a very important test tomorrow. Gul'cram.

We will be starting on HEROIC, so your new main, if you decide to switch, should be at about iLvl 900 or higher, and should be close to, but preferably have, Concordance. What we'll be looking for is DPS around the 700k range. If you think your #newmain can pull that off, please use this time to switch.

It should be said too: If you're a tank or healer and want to switch roles, this is a good time. We want to remind everybody that you should, first and foremost, be having FUN. If you're bored in your role, talk to me. We'll make it work.

We are now a top 50 guild on Kel'thuzad thanks to our stunning mythic raid progress and rapid ability to learn and master fights. Congratulations!

Here are a couple of quick things before this month gets hectic:

MYTHIC NIGHTHOLD

We have a mere four raid nights left before the Tomb opens. Since we are making mythic progress, it would be silly and time-wasting to start fresh. Therefore we will be maintaining the lockout for the rest of this raid and just keep pushing as far as we get. While Cutting Edge would be absolutely astonishing, realistically we will probably get Krosus and maybe another boss down in the short time we have; perhaps Tichondrius or Star Augur. If the mythic group were super serious about doing more than that, we would have to add another hour per raid night or another night entirely. With a group of mostly working adults, this is probably just not gonna happen. So, on Thursday we will be continuing on Krosus.

Being on time is of the utmost importance since we only have four nights left. ON TIME IS 7:30, NOT 8:00 ON THE DOT. 8 is when we PULL. PLEASE be online at 7:30 and ready for summons/group, not "let me finish this world quest" or "let me run to the AH". PLEASE. Do that shit before 7:30. It's really crushing to have 12,15,18 people waiting on one or two.

TOMB OF SARGERAS AND EXPO ICRONTIC

June is a crazy month: Expo Icrontic is happening and many of the raid core will be here in Detroit hanging out and doing stuff that's not WoW (crazy, I know!). Unfortunately, ToS opens during Expo, and so many of the raid core will be missing this event. @Swift has decided to have a normal ToS night on our regular raid night so that those who aren't partying in Detroit will have something to do.

Speaking of ToS: we are going to take a vote and let pure democracy decide what difficulty we will start on; I will present my case as to why I think it should be heroic and not normal.

We have gotten much, much better as a guild. From a skill and gear standpoint there will be no logical reason to start with normal other than "But I want to see the lore faster". I am a lore fiend as much as any of you, and I totally get that viewpoint, but we will still be getting the lore on heroic and I truly believe we will be clearing it faster than you might think. Clearing it on heroic will have us ready for mythic that much faster, and friends, let me tell you: Cutting Edge: Kil'jaeden is now something that we can realistically think about. We are one of the top 50 guilds on KT, and it's time we start acting more like it. We are all becoming excellent raiders. You know how exciting it is to get "realm 61" and "realm 63" kills now, imagine being Realm 20 or even better. It's attainable by this group, I know it. Heroic will get us there that much faster.

For the completionists among us (and I am definitely one of those); normal is still something we can do on an off-night; @Angaliki, @fatcat, and @Swift have all been successful in getting off-night raids together. Normal is also something you can pug without too much trauma.

My vote is to start on heroic Tomb of Sargeras because I KNOW we are capable of it. The gear will be significant, the progress will feel AMAZING, and it will put us on the path to being one of the top guilds on our server.

VOTE HERE

The guild is in a weird spot right now: We got good. That sounds good in most situations but the problem is that people have gotten bored. We're at a point where we've got current heroic content on farm already and a new raid is maybe two months out.

In some ways, this is the strongest the guild has ever been; in terms of player skill and commitment, we've got a truly solid raid core of skilled players that can push new content, master it quickly, and help others through it as well. This is why we're 10/10 Heroic Nighthold, almost the whole guild Ahead of the Curve, and everyone so geared that there's really not a whole lot of benefit to raiding Nighthold twice a week.

The downside of this is that we've had some drop-off and lack of commitment from formerly dedicated raiders. Some people have announced that they're taking a break until Tomb of Sargeras and others just sort of don't show up to raid night anymore.

We've tossed around the idea of making the jump back to Mythic raiding for a couple of months now, but it's been noncommittal. The last time we were a mythic raiding guild was during Siege of Orgrimmar. Well, the officers have decided to put a stake in the ground and move forward with mythic raiding as it is the next logical progression step for us.

We've got a solid raid core of 13-16 players right now. If we have some people return for mythic, we could theoretically fill out a full 20 roster. If not, we will begin taking pug DPS with the idea of this being a recruiting trial for mythic raiders. There is precedent: Icrontic has happily and successfully pugged raiders in the past who have become valuable additions to our team.

SO, that said:

THURSDAYS will be for full clears of heroic Nighthold. It'll be important to continue bringing our A-game because the goal will be a full single-night clear.

SUNDAYS will be for Progression: Starting on the 7th of May, we'll be at Mythic Emerald Nightmare.

Some of us have already done mythic EMN and I'll be honest: It's not as hard as you might think. This team will plow through it, and then we'll continue on to mythic Trial of Valor. From there, we will be on to Mythic Nighthold!

Because of the commitment needed for successful mythic raiding, we need everyone to renew their commitments to our progression raiding team. This is a good chance to let us know whether or not you're in.

Our current raid roster has 18 people; we need two more to round out a full group. My dream is that people who have stopped playing will come back for this, but I'm also fully ready to put on my recruitment pants and find some new guildies for this. Mythic is also more rigid: Pick a class, pick a role, and you're stuck with it. No changing roles or toons for this one.

If you're not confident about mythic raiding, you have two options: we can whip you into shape; it's probably not as hard as you might think it is... or this is a good time to say "ehhh, I'm not interested" and commit to that choice so that we can replace you on the mythic side. It's also fine to say you want to farm NH but not mythic, however I highly encourage you to try out mythic EMN as I think it will be a confidence and skill booster.

So, this is your chance: RIDE INTO BATTLE WITH YOUR GUILD. ICRONTIC CALL TO ARMS. Mythic Raiding awaits!

CURRENT RAID ROSTER:

MAEJAH, WOLFORD = Tanks
TRESDIN, ZUMMIE, PROTRACTOR, KIRKFRANKLIN = Heals
KETHARK, ANGALIKI, LALAINNA, KAELYNN, IMPATIENT, WHISON, MYNTEA = Ranged DPS
AVISUKU, SOLENDA, KJORNE, ZYRII, SWIFTWRAITH = Melee DPS

PLEASE post here whether or not you're in so we can put you on the official mythic roster. Thanks!

We started looking for a new home and Icrontic was the first real place I thought of when I thought online community. Because that's what we are looking for in a guild, not just a place where people raid and then ignore each other for the other 5-6 days in the week. I look forward to meeting everyone new and reconnecting with some of you who have been around for while.

Mythic+ is new a new dungeon difficulty unveiled for Legion. It starts as Mythic Level 2 (example), which is a little harder than ordinary Mythics are now (+9% health+dmg from enemies). The twist is that your group is put on a timer, and beating that timer upgrades your Keystone. Upgrading the Keystone will again increase health+dmg of bosses and add special abilities at later Mythic levels. No loot is awarded from individual bosses in Mythic+; your loot comes from chest(s) at the end of the run.

How do I get a Keystone I enter a Mythic+?

If you don't already have one: completing your first regular Mythic for the week, you will receive a Mythic+ Keystone from the final boss. Each Keystone will be for a random dungeon and start at Mythic Level 2. There's a small vessel at the start of every dungeon that will accept a keystone for that dungeon to activate Mythic+ mode. Your Keystone will tell you what dungeon it's for. Read on to find out how you can get a Keystone without running a regular Mythic first.

How long is the dungeon timer?

It varies by dungeon. About 30-45 minutes, though.

What happens if we beat the timer?

The person who initiated the Mythic+ will receive a +1 upgrade to their Keystone. Your group will get a guaranteed two pieces of loot at the end of the dungeon that is better than Mythic, from ilvl 845 all the way up to ilvl 880 at higher Mythic+ levels. The chest is personal loot, so it will respect your class/spec, but the chest will only reward two pieces total to the group. Good luck! NOTE: The Mythic+ Keystone will be upgraded to a new level for another randomly-selected dungeon. You won't have to run the same dungeon over and over.

What happens if we fail the timer?

Your group will still get the loot from the chest at the end of the dungeon, however the person that initiated the Mythic+ will deplete their Keystone. That keystone cannot be used for a loot-giving run again until it is recharged. How to recharge: run the depleted Keystone's dungeon again and beat the timer. No loot is awarded during a recharge run.

What if we really beat the timer?

If your group is rockin' good and you beat the timer by 20%, you will get two chests each with two pieces of loot for your group when the run is complete. The group's Keystone holder will also have their keystone upgraded by two levels, instead of just one, because you're so awesome. If you beat the timer by 40%, your group will get three chests each with two pieces of loot, and the group's Keystone holder will get a three-level Keystone upgrade. Example: if you beat a 45 minute Mythic Level 2 in 27 minutes or less (40% faster), your group will receive six pieces of loot and the Keystone holder will jump to a Mythic Level 5 Keystone at the end of that dungeon!

• Beat timer by 1-19%: Challenger's Cache
• Beat timer by 20-39%: Superior Challenger's Cache (plus prior cache)
• Beat timer by 40%+: Peerless Challenger's Cache (plus prior caches)

Why would I run Mythic+ if the group only has two pieces of loot? The odds are bad for me...

Every Tuesday, a chest in your Order Hall will award you a guaranteed piece of loot based on your best completed run from the previous week. Not the best run that beat the timer, just the best run that cleared the dungeon with an active Mythic+ keystone. So, if you were in a group that successfully completed a Mythic Level 5 dungeon, you will still get an ilvl 865 item the following week regardless of whether or not you beat the timer. BONUS: This chest will also give you a random Mythic+ Keystone that's two levels lower than your best completed run from the previous week, or a Keystone Level 2, whichever is higher.

• Mythic Level 2 or 3 gives 845 from the dungeon chest(s), and 860 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 4 or 5 gives 850 from the dungeon chest(s), and 865 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 6 or 7 gives 855 from the dungeon chest(s), and 870 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 8 or 9 gives 860 from the dungeon chest(s), and 875 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 10 gives 865 from the dungeon chest(s), and 880 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 11 or 12 give 870 from the dungeon chest, and 880 or 885 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 13 gives 875 from the dungeon chest, and 890 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 14 gives 880 from the dungeon chest, and 895 from your Order Hall on Tuesday
• Mythic Level 15 gives 885 from the dungeon chest, and 900 from your Order Hall on Tuesday

The Order Hall chest is guaranteed to Warforge or Titanforge.

Does everyone get a Keystone upgrade at the end of a run?

No, just the person who started the Mythic+ will receive upgraded keystones. However, your group can cycle through different dungeons (all of you will have a Keystone). Provided you continue to beat the timer(s) of these various dungeons, you'll create an infinitely long chain of loot.

Wait, does this mean there's no lockout for Mythic+?

Yep! Running Mythic+ does not lock you out of that dungeon. Everyone will have a keystone, and your group can keep doing Mythic+ dungeons for as long as you have active Keystones. If you fail, you'll have to suffer through a loot-free timed recharge run, but not even that will lock you out.

How high to Mythic+ keystones go?

Infinitely high, but the rewards stop getting better at Mythic Level 10. There is a realm first achievement for Mythic Level 15, though. A successful Mythic+15 also awards a special Artifact Weapon appearance.

You noted that higher Mythic Levels get harder. How, exactly?

• Mythic Level 2: +9% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 3: +17% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 4: +26% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 5: +36% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 6: +45% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 7: +59% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 8: +71% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 9: +85% health and damage for all enemies
• Mythic Level 10: +100% health and damage for all enemies

But wait, there's more! At Mythic Level 4, 7 and 10, your Keystone will also trigger "affixes" that add abilities to bosses and/or trash. These affixes can compound, e.g. a Mythic Level 10 keystone will also bring with it the affixes from Level 4 and Level 7. The active affixes will be printed on the Keystone's tooltip, and their actual effect(s) will be described when you insert the Keystone into the vessel at the start of the dungeon. You don't need to start the Mythic+ to learn the effect, just insert the Keystone into the vessel.

The affixes are:

• Bolstering: enemies that die buff other enemies within 45y by +20% health/damage. Bolstered MOBs cannot be CCed, except for stuns.
• Necrotic: Melee attacks apply a stacking 3% reduction to heals and absorb. 10 second timer, refreshed on a new hit.
• Overflowing: Overhealing a target places a debuff on your ally called "Overflow." Overflow is an absorb that's 3x larger than the amount you overhealed. Players will still take damage with Overflow, but your heals will not actually heal the target until you heal through the amount of Overflow on your ally.
• Raging: Enemies deal 100% additional damage starting at 30% health until they are defeated.
• Sanguine: Leaves a pool of bad at the foot of defeated enemies. It heals enemies +5% for every second they stand in it, and does 15% damage per second for players who stand in it.
• Skittish: MOBs don't respect the regular rules of aggro. Tanks will really only keep threat on the target they're actively targeting. Watch your AOE.
• Teeming: extra mobs in trash packs!
• Volcanic: Volcanic plumes will spawn under ranged players, dealing 50% damage after 2 seconds to that player and anyone within 2y.
• Fortified: Only for Mythic Level 10+, all trash MOBs have 30% more health and damage. ON TOP of your Keystone's boost.
• Tyrannical: Only for Mythic Level 10+, all bosses have 30% more health and damage. ON TOP of your Keystone's boost.

Some of these affixes are blacklisted from appearing together, lest a dungeon be literally unwinnable.

Can you replace someone in the run?

No. If someone leaves, crashes, goes LD, or whatever else might happen, you're now at a 4-man.

Do Keystones expire?

Yes, they're cleared from your inventory at the end of the week. You get a new one from your Order Hall at the start of next week: a random Mythic+ Keystone that's two levels lower than your best completed run from the previous week, or a Keystone Level 2, whichever is higher.

Is my Order Hall chest based on my personal best Keystone?

No, it is based on the best run you were a member of, regardless of whether or not that keystone was yours.

How will I know I'm in a group with a depleted Keystone?

There's an icon next to the timer that designates "no loot."

We got the REALM 68th kill of N Ellisande, 84th of Tel'Arn, 82nd of Star Augur, and 99th of Tichondrius. We broke under-10000 WORLD kill for Ellisande as we were the 9177th guild in the entire game to kill her.

On a side note: We did it again: Beat a hard boss before the nerf. We nailed the Botanist Tel'arn fight yesterday and they nerfed him today.

Our next raid night is THURSDAY. See you at Nighthold!

Now that we're in the middle of Legion, with Nighthold here and our raid team making excellent progress, it's time to talk about the guild and raiding in 2017

Our guild progress has been phenomenal. We got heroic Emerald Nightmare on farm very early on, plowed through normal Trial of Valor, and overcame two significantly challenging fights: heroic Odyn before he was heavily nerfed, and heroic Helya, one of those "guild-breaker" fights. According to WowProgress, we had the realm 84th kill on H Helya and the 91st of H Odyn. That makes us technically a "top 100" guild on Kel'Thuzad, something you can all be proud of.

We also have been making excellent mythic+ dungeon progress: one of our groups recently completed a +13 Court of Stars, and we've had a lot of people getting their Keystone Challenger achievements in addition to some great gear from weekly class hall chests.

Trial of Valor was a strange raid: it was short (we could clear both difficulties in one raid night) and short-lived (was only current for a few weeks between EmN and NH). We were able to make it through during the short window of opportunity and get Ahead of the Curve for several people.

The makeup of the active members of the guild has been in a lot of flux, like it always does with this game. When we started raiding EmN the group size and wide variety of gear/skill levels necessitated two separate raid nights; a "casual" group and a "progression" group. The goal was to have a small group of players who could push the content envelope for the greater guild and then come back to help others along so that everybody got a chance at loot and lore.

As time went on, though, the "casual" group slowly got absorbed into the progression team as people's gear and skills improved, while other casual players' schedules and situations changed.

Having only one night of progression per week started to become frustrating for the core of the guild as the progress team size remained steady (and even grew a bit), because at some point casual night became "well, I can't get anything for this so I'll bring an alt" and devolved into a night where people would practice different roles/specs/builds or bring alts to heroic raiding. The discussion arose: why are we even doing casual night when 90% of the people coming don't really need anything from these?

Now, we're at a point where we have a much smaller dedicated group, and almost no "casual" raiders, and a lot of content to push. Being that raid time is precious, we've decided to implement a second night of progression raiding. Icrontic in 2017 will just have one raid group.

Because of changing schedules, we have found the need to drop the Monday raid night and change it to Thursday. After discussing with everybody we have determined that a new schedule of Thursday/Sunday will accommodate the most people and make the most sense for the group. Therefore our new raid schedule until further notice is:

• THURSDAY 7:45PM EST: Raid night, group assembly, summons, prep, trash, first boss pull 8pm EST
• SUNDAY 7:45PM EST: Raid night, group assembly, summons, prep, trash; first boss pull 8pm EST

CONCERNS:

We do have guildies who want to raid but do not yet feel comfortable with progression content. We want to be perfectly clear that we still intend to help people with this. We will be instituting occasional "catch-up" or fun raid nights once in a while to help carry alts, low-geared toons, or anybody who wants to come through older non-cutting-edge content. If you still want Ahead of the Curve on Helya, for example, or Lingering Soul Fragments, this is the kind of thing we'll be doing. We will not be leaving anyone behind, we just will not be dedicating one night a week to this kind of content. The current idea is that we will have one of these raid nights every third Tuesday of each month; on this Tuesday raid night, everyone is welcome and we can figure out what everybody wants to do on those nights.

Those who want to be on the progression team but aren't: We want you! We want to help you become a better raider. If this means helping you learn your class better or optimizing your gear or practicing with you in higher mythic + (as a side note: mythic+ dungeons higher than 10 are EXCELLENT practice to learn your class REALLY well), we want to help! All you have to do is ask an officer (Maejah or Wolford for tanking, Protractor, Ryanfodder, Solenda, or Maejah for healing, Avisuku and Kethark for bad DPS advice) and we're ALWAYS happy to help you become better!

GUILD CHANGES:

Due to our new structure, we will be re-implementing guild repairs on raid night for ALL raiders. We will also be restructuring the guild ranks, and simplifying it a bit. New ranks will be:

Trial
Member
Raider
Officer

Guild bank Raid tab will be accessible to all raiders and officers. Repairs will be turned on during raid nights for raiders and officers.

Here's an important bit: AN AUTHENTICATOR WILL BE REQUIRED for raiders and officers. There's no excuse not to have one and we cannot risk the guild bank being compromised by WoW's shitty security (no case-senstive passwords in 2017, Blizzard? Shame).

We'll be making some changes to the raid structure and member levels in the coming days; if you see something change like your rank (demoted/promoted) DON'T PANIC. Nobody is getting 'demoted' or whatever, Blizzard just uses dumb words to indicate rank changes.

The only guild bank tab that will be accessible to non-raiders will be "levelling" stuff. Most alts will be "demoted" to "member" status since we're such a small guild and don't have the income to support repairs for alts, etc.

This is a good time to remind people that depositing HELPFUL items in the guild bank (especially gold!) is very much appreciated. Flasks, food, potions, and crafting mats are all extremely nice things to deposit. On the flip side, if you're a raider and you see something you need in the Raid Prep tab, it's yours. That's what it's there for. The general rule is: Don't be a jerk. If you see 80 flasks in the bank, don't take 80. Take 20. You understand.

Nighthold and beyond awaits us in 7.1.5 and 7.2. Icrontic is, quite honestly, in the best shape it's ever been in. We have tons of fun and lots of progress. It's a fantastic time to be in the Icrontic guild, and we are all very grateful to how awesome this team is.

Thanks everyone!

Our progression raid is going pretty well but we'd like to round out our roster with a bursty healer; a resto Shaman or holy Paladin would be awesome. If you used to play WoW and want to get back into it, this is a great time. We are helping people get ramped up and geared up very quickly and can help get a new 110 character raid-ready in a couple of weeks.

I know pretty much everyone who is interested in or plays WoW is already in our guild, but you never know

And full cleared it. Icrontic has the realm 81 kill of heroic Helya (according to Wowprogress), and we are clear for Nighthold!

On Monday we were able to take a brand-new raider through heroic EmN as well as a bunch of alts and a returning guildie (welcome back @arkim). WE were able to get a few people their Ahead of the Curve: Xavius on the very last night it was available. Congrats team!

Now that Nighthold is here and we're doing a switcharoo on the raid nights, the new raid schedule for at least the next couple of weeks will be:

Sunday Progression Team: 8pm EST first pull Normal Nighthold
Monday: All welcome: 8pm EST Normal ToV then Heroic ToV

Now that we're all settled into the Broken Isles and are legends in our own right, it's time to talk raiding.

For WoD our focus was on the social aspects of the guild and we had a pretty low bar, as far as raiding guilds go, for structure of raid nights. We raided two nights a week and, while slow, we did manage to clear most current raid content, all the way up to heroic Archimonde. We struggled mightily quite a few times, lost a few people along the way, and made new friends while we were at it. This is the ebb and flow of a WoW guild.

As a guild leader, I often step back and look at the big picture, taking into account all of the feedback, private conversations, mood, temper, and rhythm of the guild as we go along. I am very happy to say that we have weathered a lot of morale-busting situations, things that definitely would have broken up other guilds, and also shared tons of excitement, fun, and joy with the whole bunch of you. The fact that we're all still playing (and having a TON of fun) in Legion is a testament to the Icrontic culture that treats us all as a group of friends first, rather than a bunch of disconnected gamers who just attach themselves to whatever guild will help them get the numbers or gear they want. The #1 goal of the Icrontic guild will always be to have you guys over ICHQ to drink beers and crash on the couch.

Running a raiding guild is hard. Very hard. You have to balance the wishes and needs, playstyles, and skill levels of a wide variety of gamers. You have to set goals for the guild that can accomodate all of those disparate factors. Some people can play much more often than others. Some people can react much faster than others. Some don't care too much about progress and just want to hang out in mumble. Some people like talking nerdy min-maxing, some don't. All of these people are in one group together, and so one has to step back and ask, "what's the goal of the group?"

This is what I do. For those that don't know me well, I'm a community manager by trade. My job is to step back and look at the goals of the community as an entity, and work on an individual basis with people to get to understand their personal goals while keeping the overall community health and happiness in mind.

So that's enough blabber. On with the WoWs.

First off, some minor roster changes: I am stepping up to take @Myrmidon's place as raid leader since he retired. Also, @tiberiuslazarus is back in the tank seat (bear), so with him and @sazbean (Maejah) we have our tank corps back in place. We'd also like to welcome @Dark_arches (Protractor) to the officer corps, which means the officer group for this expansion is myself, @Thrax (Solenda), @Ryanfodder, @Sazbean (Maejah), @Ryder (Avisuku), and @tiberiuslazarus (Wolford).

New Raid Structure

For Legion raiding, we're trying something a bit more structured than we've been doing in WoD.

On Sunday nights at 8pm EST, our PROGRESSION group will raid fresh lockout content. The progression group is going to be handled more strictly than we've done in the past. This group will have expectations that must be met in order to participate; things like minimum item level, guild membership, taking food/flasks/potions seriously, studying fight videos and strategies, knowing the fights, achievements and non-raid content cleared on non-raid days, helping other guild members, contributing to the guild bank, using non-raid days to itemize and gear your character better, etc. While all are welcome to try out for the progression group, there should be a clear understanding that if you are asked to sit out IT IS NOT PERSONAL. These decisions will be made as objectively as possible, meaning the officers will be checking logs for things like spell uptime, mechanics failures, throughput, performance, etc. I hesitate to use the word "hardcore" but we will be taking things a bit more seriously on Sunday nights.

For those who don't care to deal with the pressure, time commitment, or style of progression raiding, we will be having CASUAL raid nights on Mondays at 8:30pm EST. This is open to everybody in the guild, including alts and friends who aren't on our server. This will be more like the normal raid nights we used to have during MoP and WoD, meaning it's not to be taken as a "goof-off" session where people get drunk and play poorly, everybody brings deeply underleveled alts to be carried, etc. We still want to make progress and get gear for those who aren't up to progression raiding, but it won't be as intense as progress night.

Now, I know many of you might immediately see a problem with this structure: "But that means we only have one night of progression raiding a week and that's not enough". The answer to that one is: be patient. Once we see how participation is going, how progress is going, etc... we may make some changes. Perhaps we use Monday to continue progression night because the casual group is doing really well. Perhaps we introduce a third raid night for casual/social raiding. We don't know exactly how things are going to shake out right now so we'll have to play it by ear. I trust that the foundation of the guild is strong and flexible enough to make it fun and make everybody feel satisfied no matter what comes up.

This is a good time to remind everybody that guild discussions and group organization will be handled here, on Icrontic. We also have a Google calendar with raid nights and other events for your convenience.

To summarize:

Sunday, 8pm EST:
Icrontic Progression Raid Night:

• Must be in the Icrontic guild on Kel'thuzad
• Must meet minimum criteria iLvl/artifact knowledge/weapon progress
• Logs will be checked for raid performance
• Fight prep knowledge is mandatory: do your own research, watch the videos, read the strats, know the fights
• "Best accepted" strategy is almost always the one we'll be using
• Food/flasks/pots mandatory
• Must have a working headset/mic for Mumble
• Use non-raid days to work on your character, gear, rep, professions, farming mats for guild bank
• You may be asked to sit out; it will not be personal, and you will be given an opportunity to get your spot back
• We can coach/help people to earn a spot on this night

Monday 9:00pm EST:
Icrontic Casual Raid Night:

• Open to all
• Some from the progression group should help carry, even if it means no gear (boss lockout)
• Within reason, alts are welcome and even encouraged
• Within reason, we can carry some, maybe 1-2 a week
• All friends of Icrontic welcome (and definitely encouraged), friends from other guilds and servers
• Puns mandatory, in honor of Dan, and I hate this they made me put it in here fuck this
• Together, we are Icrontic
• An'she guide you
• Beware the deep places of the earth

On Monday, the progression team dove back into heroic Trials of Valor, and absolutely obliterated a formerly challenging Odyn with a one-shot kill.

The nerf was real. We were so good at that fight from beating it on hard mode (let's call it almost-mythic), that the newly nerfed boss went down like the Hindenberg.

Guarm was similar: new boss, new difficulty, no problem: we one-shot it on our very first attempt. Easy-peasy.

Then, Helya.

The difficulty curve between heroic Guarm and heroic Helya is significant. Helya is another fight that we will have to practice a lot on. The attempts over the night improved as we figured out timing, positioning, and anticipated things happening. It feels like it will be similar to heroic Odyn: once we memorize the fight it will be easy.

We made good progress last night, getting her down to 75% and figuring out some challenging bits that were roadblocks.

NEXT WEEK:

From now on, we are officially done with Emerald Nightmare and will not be going back as a guild. Our casual nights are going to move on to normal ToV, and possibly heroic Odyn if we clear it fast. With Nighthold coming soon, we should only expect a couple of attempts on ToV with our casual team. I feel like we'll probably be able to easily clear normal ToV and get everybody a couple of heroic Odyn and Guarm kills before Nighthold comes out. Who knows, maybe we'll even learn the fight so well from our progression team that we'll have heroic ToV on farm for everybody at some point.

If you still need essences or gear or whatever from EmN, you're on your own now. We've tapped out the guild's patience and tolerance for EmN and most of the core is bored of it. It's possible that we can still organize an off-night heroic EmN raid for alts or whatever, but if you NEED something from EmN, you should be able to pug it or get a few people together so the pug is tolerable.

Onward and upward!

However...

We beat it BEFORE the nerf. While our achievement will never be lauded "Ahead of the Curve" style, you know you were able to execute flawlessly with near 100% perfection on an overly-difficult fight before they made it easier.

Heroic Odyn was one of the toughest fights this guild has ever faced. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who voluntarily sat out so that we could get this boss down. For those who have never done mythic raiding before, this is a taste of what it's like. The last time I had this feeling of difficulty and pure grind was during mythic SoO.

Also, thank you to those who stepped up to heal; the healing last night was spectacular.

Oh we also PLOWED through normal ToV and got our second N Helya kill for kicks. Fun times!

On Sunday night we did the usual walk through heroic EmN, but with a bunch of role swaps, which made for an interesting night. Thank you to all who are flexible enough to change roles/characters so that others can get a chance at trying new stuff out.

Great work everybody! Please take this poll about holiday raiding.