First out is Zwinkz, guild leader of the American guild Vodka, currently residing on the Mannoroth realm.

Could you please introduce yourself and your guild?
Sure, my name is Dan. I'm 20 years old and currently a student. I'm the guild leader of vodka. Been leading vodka for the last 2 years and I love it! vodka's been around since early 2005 when we started Molten Core and in BWL we started competing with our server for firsts. In AQ, due to some luck with the gate opening we managed to get a world first kill on the Twin Emps.

In naxxramas we did moderately well with the world's second kill on patchwerk and finished 10th in the US on Kel'thuzad. When TBC came out we continued our success and finished Black Temple 5th in the US. We're expecting to take things a step further in Sunwell and do much better. Our expectations of ourselves this time around are very high.

How much has Vodka raided on PTR and how much did you get to test?
Before they turned Kalecgos off we were able to kill him about 4 times I believe. Beyond that we managed to Brutallus, Felmyst, Twins, and bring Mu'ru into stage 2.

Despite some terrible lag in the first few weeks of the PTR things did settle down considerably as we went on and we were able to get some really solid testing in on Brutallus-Mu'ru. I would say that the majority of our testing was done on the Twins.

What did you think of the quality of this PTR compared to lets say BT/Hyjal?
We weren't able to be nearly as active on the BT/Hyjal PTR as I would have liked due to having content to deal with on live and to a certain extent we weren't as driven back then as we are now to be competetive. We had a lot of interaction with GM's on this PTR and were able to constantly give feedback. I was very pleased that as Sunwell progressed on the PTR, Blizzard began locking content rather than letting us test it over and over. The testing done on Brutallus-Mu'ru was very heavily monitored and quickly locked before anyone or more than a few guilds killed it. I think that was a great idea on Blizzard's part because it will extend the life of Sunwell on live ever so slightly.

Do you think the bosses you have tested on the PTR had the right difficulty/tuned right?
I think Kalecgos is a great first boss of the zone and he or she? is the boss I had the most fun with. I think its tuned perfectly. The last version of Brutallus that we fought before it was locked felt tuned perfectly, although they could always increase his hp depending on how much of a gear check they want it to be. The last version of Felmyst we fought felt terribly untuned and I feel that the damage output of some of his abilities needs to be toned down. Additionally the fight is extremely melee unfriendly, atleast the last version we fought on the PTR was. I'm hoping that the damage is scaled down ever so slightly, perhaps the Encapsulates changed to damage output that scales up over time.

The last time we fought the Twin Eredars, while they felt very very doable and I'm confident given more time we would have killed it, there are some minor bug fixxes that needed to still be done. Additionally the fight definitely encourages bringing upwards of 10+ healers with little penalty because their hp is so low.

As for Mu'ru, it was completely overtuned. It felt like we were working on C'thun 1.0 all over again. We were able to push it into stage 2, but only because we zerged it there in 60 seconds. The hp of the adds you have to kill were much too high to get very much dps in on Mu'ru.

Overall I am extremely happy with how Kalecgos and Brutallus were tuned in their final versions on the PTR, but the other bosses were incomplete before they were locked.

How do you like this new Gate idea in Sunwell from Blizzard that it will all open Simultaneously?
Well there's one good thing that comes out of it, we don't have to kill ourselves the the first week Sunwell is released raiding every single night into the morning until Kil'jaden dies. Instead the race to finish Sunwell will have breaks in between each boss after the first 3.

At the same time depending on how long it takes to open each gate and the day they open on, the race to finish Sunwell might be the most unimportant progression race yet.It may be all about whoever logs on earliest on Tuesdays and begins raiding first. There may not be a fair race at all between European and American guilds due to different maitenence days which is very very disappointing.

The European guilds are the ones that we are hoping to compete with. Ever since TBC came out US guilds have been lagging behind considerably. I'd like to see more US guilds amongst the top. The EU guilds have really done an amazing job killing everything Blizzard's thrown at them first since the start of TBC. It's very impressive and I was really hoping that vodka would be able to fairly compete with them in Sunwell.

How extensively has Vodka Prepared for Sunwell?
In the past vodka was a small guild, relying on just enough people to get by. Pre TBC this was about 42 people and during our previous progression pushes during TBC we have had about 27-29 people. I believe attendance was the biggest hurdle we needed to overcome to be a more competetive. And with that said we have expanded our roster to about 35 people now. I'd say that is the most important step we have taken to prepare ourselves for Sunwell.

As for potions and other consumables, the entire guild has put an enormous amount of work into preparing them. Most members have more than enough flasks to last weeks in Sunwell, combined with over 500 Marks of the Illidari we are more than set. From the minute we zone into Sunwell the guild will be Flasked, Oiled, Buffed with food, and whatever else there is. We've had months and over 40 Illidan kills to prepare for Sunwell and we've really put a lot of time into it.

Additionally we have a massive stockpile of Protection Potions that we've paid for by selling Hearts, Patterns, and Items from BT/Hyjal that we will be using very often in Sunwell.

On the subject of Professions, every physical dps class in the guild is a leather worker and quite a few of the casters are too. It's not a requirement for our members to do this. People do it because they want to do the most damage and be competetive. We have a lot of fun competeting with each other in the guild on the damage meters. I think I can speak for all the DPS in vodka when I say we are all looking forward to having some fun with the damage meters on Blizzard's new incarnation of Patchwerk, Brutallus.

What different hybrid classes are you guys using and which do you find most viable?
We use Shadowpriests, Enhancement Shamans, Ret Paladins, Feral Druids, and I guess you could also count DPS Warriors. Oh and we also use a Protection Paladin every week in Hyjal to make it much easier. We haven't run a Moonkin or an Elemental Shaman in a serious raid yet, but I'm definitely open to the idea. If the numbers they produced were solid, overtime they could take a Mage or Warlocks regular raid spot I suppose.

Out of all those Hybrids I would say that Shadowpriests and Enhancement Shamanas are the most essential. Shadowpriests for their mana return are just out of this world when given to healers. Given an extra 300 mp/5 a healers healing style can really become much much more aggressive, to the point where the regen from a Shadow Priest is almost broken. Enhancement Shamans provide an absurd boost to our melee dps and if the fight ever calls for increased tank threat generation, they do a great job of buffing the tanks. And of course a DPS warrior for Blood Frenzy and Battleshout is also an absolute neccesity for the huge dps gains. Ret Paladins for 3% crit, JoW, and an extra Blessing are also an excellent addition to the raid. All of these Hybrid classes really play very important roles in our raids and we are constantly having people respec to min max our raid best we can. Bringing a prot paladin in to tank Hyjal or the adds on Felmyst is a great example of taking advantage of all the different options you have to make things easier.

With your answers its obvious that you guys will be pushing it very hard for fast kills when 2.4 hits live, what three guilds do you think will manage to down Kil'Jaeden first?
Vodka will be one of them!! Haha, but seriously I don't think that's something I can really say at this point. We are going to work our asses off and try very hard to kil Kil'Jaeden as soon as we can when the gate to him opens. There's a lot of great guilds and with the way Blizzard is making the gates open it leaves a lot of room for any guild to really get a top 3 Kil'Jaeden kill.

One things for certain is that Sunwell is going to be a lot of fun and vodka is really looking forward to competing in it. We're hoping to do very very well. I just hope that the competition isn't decided by whoever logs on first on Tuesday, that would be very disappointing.

Website: www.vodka-guild.com
Interview series by gosey & mackzter.

Tomorrow: Interview with Nopher, officer of Last Resort.