By now, thousands of guilds have set foot into their first Cataclysm raid. Tens of thousands of individuals players have taken part in climactic battles against towering monstrosities. And I’m willing to bet every single one of those players has spent a significant amount of time face-down in the dirt. Welcome to raiding, where the trash is tough, the bosses tougher, and everything in sight wants... 

This week we began raiding at last. We started in Blackwing Descent and took down three bosses – Magmaw, the Omnatron Defense System, and Maloriak – in three days of raiding. Maloriak took about 4 hours of concerted effort and probably 20 wipes over two nights, but we solved the problem in the end. It was an extremely auspicious beginning and enthusiasm is very high right now. I’m... 

I’m excited this week for two reasons. First, my guild is heading into raids this week, which means the focus of this “Raids of Warcraft” column can start to actually be about raiding, not just instances. I know that means that we won’t have a full set of instance walkthroughs, and there’s a part of me that’s bothered by that (the obsessive compulsive completist part) but I’m sure I’ll... 

I hate conflict. This is probably an odd sentiment coming from someone who is in a role that specifically requires confronting and resolving conflict on a fairly regular basis, but it’s true – I despise conflict. There’s been a moderate amount of it lately, and while some of it was expected – we’re beginning the new raid content this week, which, frankly, is a nightmare...