"Tonight a group of our players managed to complete meta-achievement [Glory of the Ulduar Raider], getting shiny new Rusted Proto-Drakes and at the same time gaining access to 10-man version of Algalon.
To explain lack of any previous updates - just as it was with tier 7 10-mans, we didn't consider Ulduar-10 part of our official progress. It was more of something to do on the weekends, with the meta-achievement set as a single goal and the first progression milestone (Algalon kill obviously being second). And just like it was with Plagued Proto-Drakes (along Red and Black ones), we're happy to announce we managed to obtain Rusted Proto-Drakes as the first group on the server. Hopefully the fifth update on server first drakes will soon follow ;)
Was it easy task? At times it was. Don't think any of the 'easy mode only' bosses cost us a single wipe (except of [Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare] which pretty much requires you to wipe if you want to get it in a single go and is the dumbest achievement to ever be included in meta).
The first hard-modes we did were also stupidly easy; XT-002, Steelbreaker, Hodir all happened in just few pulls. Thorim, Freya, Vezax and Flame Leviathan (attempted only after the nerf sadly) were little more tricky but still didn't take more than a length of a single raid.
First real challenge was [One Light In The Darkness]. For most of us it was first visit to 10-man Yogg-Saron. We started not knowing how many portals he spawns in this version ;) Only after few adjustments to the positioning, setup and assigments - and several horrible ideas - we finally managed to get him down. It's stupidly easy to repeat, granted, but great fun to learn nonetheless.
That left us with [Firefighter]. To state the obvious - we killed him after the nerf. We don't really think it cheapens the kill though. He's still hardest hard mode by far and the ultimate gatekeeper of both Algalon and the drakes. What the change mainly does is making phase 2 little less spammy. The reduced health might save couple of annoying "1% wipes" - but with nearly one minute left on our kill it's hardly gamebreaking. Neither is reduced damage from plasma blast; no group stuck at wiping to that before the nerf has much chance to down him anyway. All in all, those changes saved us couple of hours. We still expected to down him this weekend - but most of us don't feel 'cheated'. And even if we were, sweet new rides and access to Algalon mended the pain :)"

- Befsztyks

"While Flame Leviathan even after nerf took good few pulls to beat, XT-002 got nearly one-shotted; and we only failed to do it cause we completely underestimated enrage timer and crawled through first 25% before heart while enjoying the views.
It's possible Flame Leviathan would feel similar if we ever left Tower of Life or tried more than two towers at once before, just like we did some practice on Heartbreaker. Probably this one felt little easier because your own characters don't take few seconds to turn around, like Demolisher or Siege Engine - so it feels that much more natural to control it.
Truth is, currently first two hard modes of Ulduar aren't really that hard anymore. Flame Leviathan is easy vehicle encounter. XT-002 is simply easy encounter. Maybe little more demanding that normal mode of General Vezax and Yogg-Saron when it comes to DPS, HPS and TPS - but much, much easier to execute. Any guild looking for their first hard mode to practice can easily scratch Hodir off the list and pick this one instead."

- Befsztyks

"Hard mode of Flame Leviathan got nerfed some time last reset. And if we haven't read about it, we would probably notice it easily enough just by trying it. Current difficulty can be compared to what 2 harder towers used to feel like before. Gone is Hodir's slowing aura, gone is 30% of his health.
Guess not making it to some hard modes before they get nerfed was bound to happen, with our pretty relaxed speed all the way through Ulduar after Yogg-Saron died. Do we regret it? To a degree. It's still gimmick vehicle fight. For many people in our raid getting done with the gimmick vehicle fight faster could only be a good thing.
Besides, just as it's natural for the difficulty of normal modes of encounters to get higher the further in you go, it makes sense for hard modes to scale that way. With the changes to Leviathan and XT-002, it's pretty much done."

- Befsztyks

"Another reset brings another hard mode kill. Fighting Thorim along with his 'wife' brings back a lot of good memories of harder TBC encounters. It's no Brutallus - but when he's at higher amount of stacks the things tanks and their healers have to do feel awfully familiar. The precision required with positioning and movement also shows very well we're not in Naxxramas anymore. It's a shame he doesn't work like that to start with - just like it's a shame Hodir doesn't come with 3 minute enrage timer - but having possibility to access his proper version is good second price."

- Befsztyks

"After doing some partial achievements, like Leviathan with some towers or Freya with one Elder, we finally got a crack at the real thing.
It's probably hard to describe just how much the kill meant for us. Fight in itself is hardly that tricky. It's just another normal mode kill really, only in a hurry (and I can say it with a straight face as I'm not a healer :P). Much bigger difficulty was actually getting people motivated to do it. To wipe purposely on a fight we know we can finish if only we took another 20 seconds. With summer coming, end of a year exams and - to a certain degree - general disappoitment of what passes as 'content' at Blizzard's these days, it was hard to get 25 people together on regular basis.
Hopefully, getting that done means that people finally embraced the idea of hard modes for real. Next few days and progress on Thorim should give us good idea."

- Befsztyks

"Carpe Noctem is open for recruitment again. However, we're not really desperate for any class or spec. We aren't short on people either. Pretty much every raid we plan, we manage to start and finish on schedule. Why are we looking for additional people then?
Simple. There's always room for improvement. And after we started to work on hard modes of Ulduar, it became pretty obvious everyone needs to be on the ball from start to finish. No one will cover for your mistakes and no one will carry you on their backs. That means that the best way of improving our chances is improving the weakest links in the chain.
That obviously means the players we're looking for have to be exceptional. You have to know your class and spec inside out. You need right finger insticts to save yourself from certain doom when the certain doom is about to happen. Providing best gems and enchants for your gear and securing the consumables should be something natural for you, not a great sacrifice. You also have to be in control of your own time. We're by no means a hardcore guild. We don't start raids at noon and we don't finish them at dawn. But we do have set hours for raids - and we expect our members to be able to meet them.
If you think you fit the bill, register on our forums and fill out our application template."

- Befsztyks

"That one took a little longer than expected - but on third evening of our third reset, we finally managed to down Yogg-Saron and complete Ulduar in its normal mode. The kill did taste a little bittersweet, missing server first to Godless by mere minutes again. And while there's many comments to be said, let's just stick to 'server first is server first' and 'we're out of luck' :]
That aside, getting him down still felt great. It's really complex, multiphase fight, with some mechanics we wouldn't even imagine before. Keeping your sanity high, going through the different visions, all the while fighting against the tentacles and adds just a little more numerous than China population - it all took a while to master but was also worth every minute spent learning it in the end. At one point every part of it felt impossible, and just trying to imagine same thing without any Watcher helping gives you a chill down the spine. Last but not least - many fantastic references to Lovecraft helped further improve the fight that really needed no further improvements.
Highest notes for Ulduar after getting to see all of it. We're really looking forward to starting on the hard modes now. The little previews we had of it, on both 10 and 25-man, look like a really good fun."

- Befsztyks