-HC- Maladomini 11/8/12(Sat)@3pm EST/8pm GMT

[Enius the White]

The first HC descent into the deep hells continues with a run at Maladomini, this Sun, July 22nd.

We'll need all hands on deck to stand up to Baazebul and his hoard of Pit Fiends, Malebranches and Machines.

[Enius the White]

Well, we had 6 ready to go, but no Arcane. You know what they say: "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades!"

Rescheduled to Wed, same time.

[Enius the White]

Cancelled.

[chainlink]

I’ve been in parties in the last few days where the deeper Hells HC discussion has come up quite often and I think we need to attempt to get some of the non-taggers fixed before going deeper.
Whilst it’s very impressive that we do actually have several tagged to access Maladomini (not something I ever thought would happen) there are an awful lot waiting on Min, Phleg & Stygia (possibly Dis too as we’ve completed a fair few Avernus runs recently) and I think we need to get as many people as possible fully tagged before contemplating further progression.
If we ever get to Nessus it would be extremely disappointing if everybody involved was not able to get demi status if successful as completing this run is no mean feat.
I think for the minute we really need to focus more on tag runs and you never know we might get lucky and add to the couple of BUR race books that have been snagged recently giving the HC community more options.

My 2C at least.

[chirality]

Well said chain.

[Enius the White]

Just got back from 10 days of sailing... and 3 days of catching up on work afterwards . Time for some more HC hells!

Chain, I agree that tags are nice. But, like you, I've been happy to do almost 30 non-tag HC hell runs over the last few months to the one Malb that I tagged on. Going deeper is about the challenge, the teamwork, not the tags, and I accept that not every HC player shares our goal of advancing the depth of HC play. I recognize that players like Charity, who's complete lack of contribution on the mid-deep hells front first surprised me, have every right to just play in areas that are not too stressful for them, and in ways that they enjoy, without expectations from us. It's all good. I empathize fully with those who argue that the risks do not justify the rewards in our end game endeavors. They are right. There is no valid "cost/benefit" analysis involved in HC deep hells, just as there is no valid "cost/benefit" analysis involved in choosing to have your toon deleted upon limbo... it's simply HC, and excuses are not part of it.

The reality we face is this: Less HC players are available now to run hells than there were 6 months ago. The server population is not growing. Any HC hell run from Tia on down pretty much requires a majority of non-taggers to step up. There are just too few moving up organically to bring a full party of taggers to any end game run. Most understand this, and support has generally been iron clad.

While a pleasant idea, a complete party tagging in the first HC Nessus is an immense extra logistical constraint that is likely not realistic. It's the nature of HC; getting toons, gear, tags, etc deleted on limbo that makes the "everyone start again at Tia every time we loose one" approach virtually impossible to execute, especially when compounded with the ad hoc, cross time-zone scheduling realities. In practice, in the months it would take to get the same party back to say Malad again, we'd have lost 1 or 2 more, so it would be back to Tia again. It's a sure plan for failure.

My plan remains simple. We forge ahead, deeper, stronger, wiser, even if it means stepping over the corpses of the fallen, and past those quivering and hiding underneath them. At the same time, we continue to help tag up any other toons that have the courage to step up, honing solid end-game team play as we do.

I'm rescheduling this Maladomini for Sat. If you need other tags before then, please speak up here or post the run you need in a new thread. You can count on the stalwart coming to back you up as usual, no tags, no excuses.

[chirality]