Ninjas Guide to Dark Elixir for TH7 and TH8

Since I have finally started getting closer to maxing out my defenses at Town Hall 7, I have been looking into Dark Elixer Raiding. I just finished getting my Barbarian King and let me tell you, it seemed like forever before I got him! Now that I have him, I've decided that it's time to start maxing out the rest of my dark Elixer stuff. My research brought me to this guide:

http://forum.supercell.net/showthread.php/152865-Ninjas-Guide-to-Dark-Elixir-for-TH7-and-TH8

I haven't tried any of Ninja's methods yet but they sound like they will work really well. Like I said, I still have a few defenses to upgrade but once I do I will be trophy pushing to 1500 so I can begin my Dark Elixer farming.

Attacking Guidelines

I'm not going to go into great detail here as I feel I still have a lot to learn about attacking.  Plus Flammy's Guide provides a pretty good foundation for attacking.  My intentions for this guide is more of a "what I've learned" type of guide.  I'll update this throughout my playing time as I discover more "tricks" to attacking.

Shuck's Defense Guide

As a Clan Leader I feel that it is my duty to help my clan succeed as much as humanly possible.  I have been asked for base advice on multiple occasions from fellow clan members and while I don't claim to be an expert, I give what knowledge I can.  I created this guide because I felt I could explain things better here than several back and forth conversations in the Clan chat.  Also, it was starting to get very repetitive.  Now I can refer someone to this page when needed.