While we didn't quite manage to down Void Reaver, we came very, very close on our fourth and final attempt of the evening, bringing the second boss in Tempest Keep down to 4% before falling to his enrage timer. While Keaton undoubtedly blames a certain mage ;), I blame the realm itself: if it hadn't been for a series of untimely disconnects and a server lock-out, we so would have had him!

There's no reason to be discouraged because we didn't one-shot the so-called "Loot Reaver" on our first night in Tempest Keep. On the contrary, we should be proud of ourselves for making it this far without compromising our values as a guild. We have sacrificed progression in the past to preserve our "fun and friendship first" philosophy, either by divorcing ourselves from members who were more concerned with their personal progress than with the guild's as a whole, or by committing ourselves to our less experienced raiders to ensure that no one who was both receptive to feedback and able to learn was left behind. This isn't an approach that all or even most guilds would take, but I like to believe that it's one of our greatest strengths as a community.

So by all means -- celebrate the successes! We filled an all-guild group (Yes, Saucinator counts! His warlock is guilded, after all ... and some kind of bizarre pet of Neville's? ;) and even managed to let our part-time Shaman raid on his full-time Rogue without sacrificing healing power, something that we have struggled with for quite some time.

Void Reaver is definitely going down next week! Then, it will be on to Serpentshrine Cavern to fish up The Lurker Below (literally), and deeper into both raid instances as we continue to grow and progress.

My friends: Welcome to Tier 5 raiding!