Long before this site was a twinkle in my eye I knew that I wanted to interview the Alliance leading raid guild for the launch edition. Much to my delight Celeus the GM of Bridgeburners agreed to my request after my semi stalking him (poor poor man!)

After repetitively typing /who brideburners to track him down I’m glad to realise the guild name has a less mistyped masochistic theme. I have thoroughly enjoyed finding out a little bit more about Bridgeburners and hope the rest of the realm does to.

Many will realise that Bridgeburners just aren’t into self PR, modesty is a strange but wonderful thing to find in any number one spot. For this Celeus and the rest of Bridgeburners get a friendly /bow from me.

The serious bit!

What’s the story behind the name Bridgeburners?

It’s was borrowed from a fantasy novel entitled Malazan Book of the Fallen written by Steven Erikson in which the Bridgeburners are an elite unit of soldiers in the Malazan Empire.

Bridgeburners was created around the same time at the launch of the Burning Crusade with a refreshing guild philosophy, striving for realm firsts whilst upholding this must of at times be challenging, can you explain the mindset behind the philosophy?

The guild was formed on the principles of trying to provide an enjoyable and mature raiding environment. Which aims to experience all the PvE challenges the game has to offer while at the same time keeping a balanced raiding schedule. Therefore we raid four nights a week as a maximum and try to be efficient and effective during that time. Hopefully allowing members to maintain their real world commitments and interests or time to enjoy the other areas the game has to offer.

You finally defeated Kil’jaeden in Sunwell Plateau after the patch 3.0.2 nerf. After putting so much effort into defeating Mu’ru pre nerf and making steady progression with Kil’jaeden were you angry at its implementation and feel cheated or were you just happy to have cleared Sunwell.

At the time there were mixed feelings, as it’s always nice to beat all content before the large nerfs are implemented. However we had a tricky time beating M’uru as it was such an exacting encounter that for us required a very specific set of classes back before the flexibility changes of WotLK. So repeat kills weren’t always straightforward and with us struggling a little on the numbers and raid balance front due to the summer we never really had the time we required to beat Kil’jaeden before the changes were implemented. 

Onto Wrath of the Lich King and Ulduar. Has the raid as a whole lived up to your expectations of how difficult Blizzard made it out to be (hardmodes obviously)?

Ulduar was an enjoyable and well-designed instance and the addition of hardmode encounters were an interesting change of direction offering something for nearly everyone. Difficulty wise there was a good spread and probably the only small disappointment was some of the hardmode encounters didn’t introduce more unique changes giving them that extra bit of longevity and learning curve. However Firefighter was one that really came up with something special and was a completely different challenge to its normal version.

Are you still trying for “Alone in the Darkness”? and how does this hardmode compare to the others you have accomplished?

It’s not one we have spent much time on mainly because Yogg-Saron with no keepers can sometimes be a random and frustrating fight and after completing the +1 version shortly before Coliseum we only fitted in a few tries and weren’t really that close. With our four raids a week we switched our focus to clearing Trial of the Grand Crusader after that became available. Now that has been completed we may well return and have a little play with Yogg +0 though its probably not a full focus thing with Icecrown Citadel being so close.

How do you feel about the abolition of trash mobs in The Trial of the Crusader and about the raid as a whole?

Coliseum had the disappointing feel of a filler and experimental instance as well as acting as a gear reset before Icecrown. The plan of releasing one normal boss a week was also a poor one and big anticlimax. With only five encounters the difficulty progression was never going to be smooth and in the end Anub’arak was on a different level to the rest. This could mean having 40+ attempts and only him available with no other options including trash to give you a change of focus. Hopefully Icecrown Citadel will live up to everyone expectations, as it will be the instance that defines this expansion.

Which hard mode so far has taken the most total hours to learn and defeat?

If we are talking WotLK that ‘honour’ goes to Anub’arak. He took us in the region of 150 to 200 tries over 5 weeks to get that first kill with phase 3 being the really nasty part including quite a few low health wipes. However M’uru would still hold the most time required for a first kill if we include everything we have faced.

So far are you guys satisfied with the endgame that you have played through? How would you rate it against the pre-WOTLK endgame?

It’s going to depend hugely on Icecrown Citadel. The first set of raid instances, were as Blizzard intended, very entry level and great to introduce more people to raiding however I think buffing one or two of the later fights would have added to them. The variable difficult on bosses such as Sartharion and Freya, for example, were a nice idea and worked well. As mentioned Ulduar was really good overall but has had to carry the load for too long a time.

I think we have a tendency to look back fondly on the past and well maybe there was a bit more epic feeling on some of the earlier bosses much of this due to the fact we had never seen anything like them before. Lets hope the Lich King has that truly epic feel we all enjoy and want him to have.

Has any of the guild been active on the PTR and if so what have they reported back? What are you most looking forward to with the implementation of the next patch and how are you preparing for the Lich King?

We don’t have any organised raids on the PTR though a few are trying using them to see what their class changes will bring and getting a sneak preview of what 3.3 has to offer. The few snippets I have heard all sound very positive so far. I wouldn’t say we are making huge preparations outside of the norm for the Lich King just farming ToTC for gear upgrades and restocking preferred consumables.

Lastly for the “serious” bit can you tell me how it feels to achieve realm firsts, personally and collectively as a guild?

Personally beating any boss for the first time is an enjoyable feeling if they took at least some progress and effort to achieve. If it’s also a realm first I guess that’s the cherry on top certainly not your only/main aim but a nice bonus.

Now for the more lighthearted stuff!

When your not raiding what do you and your guildies get up to? (I hope for some information on naked dancing in a secret location.)

The usual bits really some enjoy PvP/Arena, some play an alt or two (or whole armies) and some just stick to barbecuing stray gnomes to keep the population under control!

Where is your favourite place in WoW?

My favourite zone is probably either Nagrand or Storm Peaks mostly for how they looked and felt when I first visited them. My favourite place is probably Moonglade as playing a druid I have spent quite a bit of time there to respec with the handy teleport and its normally very peaceful. I remember visiting it nearly every raid during Sunwell before the much welcome addition of dual spec, I think we probably funded the whole village’s summer vacation that year!

Do you enjoying the levelling process and what is your favourite quest/questline and why?

I quite enjoy that side of things (well first time through anyway), as it tends to be a great way to explore the new zones. Favourite quest lines are probably ‘Are We There, Yeti?’ love the name its just a shame the pet only had three uses. The druid epic flight form chain is also a favourite as it has such a great reward at its end.

If you could steal one ability from another Class what would it be and why?

Playing a druid there’s probably not many out there we don’t have some small approximation to!  Though a better interrupt would be handy (or just give the pre nerf FoK!)

Do you have a favourite and least favourite raid boss, can you tell us who they are and why?

Favourites from the old raids would be Ragnaros and Nefarian just for their scale (plus I love killing dragons). Current content probably Mimiron on either mode he’s something different from the usual bosses. Least favourite is probably General Vezax I just thought there would be more to him with his position in Ulduar and then not being a caster I don’t get to stand in the crashes and put out huge numbers!

Can you recall the funniest thing that ever happened during a Bridgeburners raid any classic wipes or hilarious mistells?

I do remember one of our shamans, who had a slight habit of falling asleep at their keyboard, auto running into Kel’thuzad’s room creating a rather unexpected wipe and much enquiring as to what happened! There’s always a few good mistells floating about though sadlyI never seem to get enough of the best ones!

Where to the majority of your guild live and do you ever meet up in real life for beers!

We are widely spread across Europe covering quite a few countries including Holland, Sweden, UK, Finland, France, Spain and Greece (and more besides before I get lynched – we even used to have a few US based players at the start of TBC, though all have now stop raiding). We haven’t had an official whole guild get together though many have met up in smaller groups on their travels.

Thanks very much again for doing this, and congratulations on all the success. Anything else you’d like to say to players of Emerald Dream?

Thanks to everyone who plays on ED for making it an enjoyable place to be and all the best with your WoW journeys whichever part of the game you prefer to enjoy.

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