Well, it's finally here: another set of bosses, which bring with them more opportunities for Emblems of Frost. It also means new content, which means new mechanics to figure out... and we're already done with that, at least for 10 mans. Oh well. At least it lasted a week.

We've also decided that, with the onset of the newer content, we're going to need to update our recruitment needs. Check them out, read our requirements, and send in a POLISHED app if you think you can contribute.
Hint: Healing priests are in great demand.

Another reset tomorrow will, ideally, bring another post about a certain 25man Professor. Until then, stay classy, Aggramar.

-Z-

After many weeks of sacrificing Ulduar loot for the Greater Good of EO, we finally got something to show for it. OK, MANY somethings to show for it. As you may have no doubt seen, and you did if you were online at the time because of server spam -- we managed to pull off the Server First kill of Yogg'Saron without any keepers helping, thus unlocking Alone in the Darkness and the badass title of Death's Demise.

Below, and only included because Psuedopally had the foresight to turn his Fraps back on, is a video of the kill. It wasn't the prettiest, especially at the end, but it was effective. That's what counts! Also, Blueminty hacked his way to survival; I stand by this firmly.

Server First! Alone in the Darkness Video (Click to play)

Alone in the Darkness - Server First! Death's Demise!

For whatever reason many of the officers, especially those more involved in recruitment, decided it would be a good idea to tune up our recruitment process and to introduce new recruits to what we expect from them beyond just filling out an application.

To that end, allow me to introduce the New Application Intro Page.

You may now "ooh" and "aah." Bask in its glory. Also, read it. Read it well. We didn't spend as much time writing and polishing that as we did for it to be ignored.

If you want to join the guild, you need to be aware of what we're asking.
You'll also be completely unable to fill out the application without accessing that page first. So hah.

-Z-

Well, I've been slacking, especially on frontpage updates. Forgive me. I do come with good news, however! In the last few weeks, the dedicated raiders here at EO have managed some pretty good progress (though it's hard to compare to the amazing night we had just under a month ago).

We killed some dirty hordies! You read that right; we here at Exalted Order are proud to admit to being factionists, and when presented with the opportunity, we without hesitation murdered the Horde's Faction Champions three weeks in a row. There are no plans to cease this warfare.

We not only managed to down the Faction Champions on heroic, though. We've been able to repeat that performance for two weeks now without the (ridiculously OP) Fan of Knives interrupts. That was one patch change all our rogues welcomed with open arms! Our healers... were not as pleased :P

But fear not, faithful readers, those dirty Horde Faction Champions were not the only ones to feel our wrath. No, after bolstering our ranks with some new recruits, and empowering ourselves with as much racism as we dared, we managed to slay the mighty Twin Val'kyr on Heroic, too, for another Server First! We might have forced some people to go play Ikaruga first, but it was all worthwhile... especially since that game is amazing.

The Twin Val'kyr are down for another Heroic Server First!

In case you hadn't heard, the EO Pain Train is a force to be reckoned with when we're really in gear, and tonight was one of those nights. We thought we'd begin with the Heroic Coliseum after blowing through normal mode yesterday, and were we ever rewarded.

While last night was a pretty good night, we only nailed the strat for and didn't record a kill. Tonight that changed, a lot. We strolled into the Crusader's Coliseum and decimated our first Heroic boss in two pulls, gaining the server first on Heroic Beasts of Northrend! But that wasn't all. Oh no, faithful readers. We kept pushing, and we got Lord Jaraxxus after just a few more attempts, with some DPS that really just blew our minds.

Allow me to introduce Aggramar's first and only Celestial Defenders!

When the EO Pain Train gets rolling, bosses had better watch out.

Last night was another good night for us. We strolled into the Crusader's Coliseum and decimated the first few bosses before an embarrassing wipe to the Faction Champs (they really owned us). But we recovered, and within short order we had not only had our revenge but also laid waste to the other "new content" for the week: the Val'kyr Twins. Don't let their color scheming fool you, because it's like Michael Jackson said: it doesn't matter if it's black or white, EO will kill 'em.

That wasn't all though, fearless readers. Oh no. See, the EO Pain Train had another stop to make, and it involved Ulduar. It claimed not one but two other victims! After destroying the Iron Council without even losing a member, and poking around at Algalon's door for a few seconds, we set our sights on a different target. Even the old god himself couldn't withstand our might.

After some minor tweaking, we finally nailed the Yogg's hardmode, One Light in the Darkness, and with it several of us unlocked Aggramar's first flight of Ironbound Proto-Drakes.

Allow me to introduce Aggramar's first flight of Ironbound Proto-Drakes!

Two hardmodes in one week? You know, before tonight even I wasn't sure we were up to it. Then people logged on, and we organized, and we planned the raid tonight, and we kicked some serious boss butt! Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood is down, and what a great rush. Now we've got a huge boost to our confidence going into Algalon. Gulp.

Next week we'll get our first real glance at the Herald of the Titans, and then hopefully some time on Yogg's hardmode. Things are looking up!

It has taken a long, long time, but finally (and with great pleasure) I can say that Exalted Order has taken down one of the best fights this game has ever seen: Firefighter is ours!

It took lots of pulls, lots of practice, and a constant stream of expletives from some of our officers, but in the end we won. Grats to Eiritoo on his brand spanking new Starshard Edge. It was a well deserved upgrade.

It seems like only a day ago when last I had occasion to update this. Oh wait... No matter. With the new week, we were presented with a new boss in the Coliseum, and in very short order, we found out that we were exceptionally prepared for the best Lord Jaraxxus had to offer. (Read: he died very, very quickly.) One pull, one kill, dead demon. And the purps spewed out like from a pinata. Yay?

That's right, after a few weeks of attempts, we finally managed to polish off our strat and got I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning last night...

Smells like... VICTORY!

After several weeks of limited attempts, we finally got a kill on the 10man Astral Observer himself, Algalon. The fight is simply awesome to behold, and the strain it puts on healing, tanking, and DPS is intense. Maybe it's not quite up to the level of Firefighter, but it's still very, very cool.

I think we need the camera zoomed out just a little bit more...

Well the instance may be new, and the bosses may be new, but it didn't stop EO from getting a Server First kill on the Beasts of Northrend. Sorry for the late update, but grats to all just the same!

Wow, have we been busy the last few days or what? Seems like by the time I update the flash banner, it needs to be updated again! I'm always glad to do it, ofcourse, but nothing beats getting to post up some tasty raiding video along with the updates.

A big Thank You to Cuddlekin, who recorded, edited, and published the following video of our Iron Council Hard Mode kill!

Iron Council Hard Mode Video (Click to play)

Iron Council Hardmode - Server First!

Another day, another kill. Gosh, you guys sure are making it difficult for me to keep all these postings up to date! How rude! :P

But seriously, it was an awesome night, as we got a lot of great work in, and quickly finished off a side project we'd been messing with for a little while -- the Iron Council! That's right, folks, another hard mode down (and another server first). Excellent job! We're officially half way through the hard modes of Ulduar.

Next up, we have a date with a tall, stone, and mysterious chick. We'll see what kind of loot we can get out of her (wink wink).

Again, excellent job to all, and here's hoping the EO pain train keeps on rolling.

-Z-

The Iron Council Hard Mode (Click to view mini gallery)

Incoming Useless Points!

Steelbreaker group pic.

After a few weeks of putting it off, it took us two solid nights of pulls to get the coordination just right (and the RNG to not suck) enough to put the frost giant on ice!

Great job, and nice perseverance, from everyone that helped out and put in the pulls. The lewts were epic, and i'm sure Phoggy is enjoying his new Staff of Endless Winter. Tomorrow everything resets and we get to have more fun. See you all then, and hopefully more good updates coming quickly ;)

-Z-

You know what they say: Falling in love is awfully simple, but falling out of love is simply awful. It seems like the XT-002 Deconstructor learned the hard way tonight. He was all jazzed up about new toys. I mean, you could hear it in his voice. But then some mean, nasty group of guys came in and broke his poor little heart. And it's such a shame, too, since his voice is oh so lovely...

We had another great night tonight, even starting out undermanned. Another repeat of FL+4 (which is now nerfed beyond belief), a Fragment of Val'anyr for Joshuarn, and a brand spankin' new, server first hard mode kill. Awesome work everyone!

Tune in tomorrow, same EO time, same EO channel, for more of our fun and games. Or maybe Nox will just ask more of us what we think about ponies... How do you feel about ponies? - Nox


Deconstructor Hard Mode (Click to enlarge)

After a few more strategy adjustments, we were able to clean up on the Heroic: Orbit-uary. More to come tonight, we hope. Stay tuned for more details, and grats again to everyone!


Flame Leviathan Hard Mode (Click to enlarge)

Another server first, 174th in the US, and 434th in the World! Grats guys. We're earning those numbers with every kill. Tune in Monday for the next installment, when we hope to get a certain old god with the help of a few fewer Watchers ;)


Thorim Hard Mode (Click to enlarge)