Mara Ellison
Raid Lead & Editor
Twelve years of hardcore progression raiding. Mara writes our mechanic breakdowns and refuses to publish a strat she hasn't cleared herself.
Raid & RPG blog · Surry Hills, Sydney
Chalk up the strategy before the pull.
We break down boss mechanics, meta shifts and RPG builds the way a good cafe chalkboard breaks down the specials — clear, honest, and worth the read before you queue up.
New post every Tuesday.
Free. No paywalls, no fluff.
About the blog
Written by people who actually clear it.
ArcaneRaidVanguard started in 2018 above a coffee roaster on Reservoir Street. What began as a shared raid log for a dozen Sydney guildmates is now a full blog covering endgame PvE, RPG systems, and the messy, wonderful patch cycles that keep us up past reset.
We don't chase launch-day hype or copy-paste patch notes. Every guide is playtested, every review is finished before it's written, and every strat is drawn out like specials on a cafe chalkboard — simple enough to read at a glance, deep enough to trust on progression night.
640+
guides published
7 yrs
covering raids
28k
weekly readers
How we cover a game
From first pull to victory lap
A repeatable four-step method behind every ArcaneRaidVanguard guide — the reason our strats hold up on patch day.
01
Log every attempt
We parse full combat logs across 20+ pulls before writing a word, so timings and damage checks reflect real runs — not a lucky clear.
02
Chalk the mechanics
Each boss phase gets a hand-drawn positioning diagram and a plain-English callout list you can screenshot straight to your guild's Discord.
03
Build & benchmark
Gear, talents and rotations get sim-tested for every role, with budget and best-in-slot variants so casual and hardcore readers both get value.
04
Update after patch
Every guide carries a dated changelog. When the meta shifts or a hotfix lands, we revise within 48 hours instead of letting stale advice rot.
The writers
Who's on the chalkboard
Deepak Rao
RPG & Systems Writer
Our resident theorycrafter. Deepak sims builds, digs through patch data, and translates spreadsheet math into advice you can actually use.
Tess Nakamura
Reviews & Community
Tess finishes every game before reviewing it and runs our reader Discord. If a mechanic feels unfair, she'll say so — politely and in detail.
Cormac Byrne
Video & Diagrams
Cormac draws every positioning chalk-map by hand and cuts the pull-by-pull clips. He's the reason our guides are screenshot-ready.
From the readers
Cleared thanks to a chalkboard
Get in touch
Email
[email protected]
Pitch a guide, say g'day.
Got a boss that's wiping your guild, a correction, or a review request? Drop us a line. We read everything and answer most emails within two business days.
Phone
+61 2 9211 8329Studio
55 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Desk hours
Mon–Fri, 10am–6pm AEST