With the release of patch 3.1, it is time to readdress our raid program and its goals.

This expansion cycle has been a tremendous one for our raid program. Clearing Naxaramas 10 man 4 weeks after release. Downing Malygos and championing the frozen wastes. Transitioning into 25 man content by growing from within and adding excellent new friends from without. Clearing Naxx, Malygos, Sarth+2 on heroic. Moving into the top 10 of all guilds on Daggerspine while maintaining our commitment to the values that make us so special. All the while having just a blast hanging out with a special bunch of friends.

We aim to continue to keep raids fun and exciting while challenging ourselves to move smoothly through the new and difficult content. With that in mind I propose the following long term, 'pie in the sky' raid program goal:

Meet Algalon the Observer, or in the words of the blue text: "Algalon the Raid Destroyer. He feeds off of your tears." Algalon is an optional boss only available in hard mode, and only available after beating the other raid bosses in Ulduar on hard mode. Very, very few guilds will ever see Algalon, even fewer will down him. Let's be one of them.

How shall we get there? It's gonna take a lot of focus, a lot of gearing up and a lot of making sure we all make ourselves better players. The progression path is fairly straightforward, we will attempt to completely clear Ulduar on easy mode and then pick off the hard mode encounters one by one until we feel comfortable doing them all.

One thing we are going to do is create a 10-man Achievement Team. Based on performance in 25 man raids a 10 man team will be put together to attempt many of the hard mode encounters in Ulduar before the 25 man squad is ready. This will help train a strong portion of the guild as well as gear up quite a few. Ulduar 10 man hard mode gear is the same ilevel as Ulduar 25 normal. Participation on the 10 man team will be competitive, based on such factors as attendance, dps, knowledge of class and boss fights, and willingness to struggle mightily while maintaining a positive attitude. It is very likely that the 10 man team will see newer content and achieve guild first boss kills.

All in all, I love where we are going into this next patch, we are ready for the new content and I am very excited to see the new heights we can reach together.