I’ve received more than a few veiled threats for not updating this blog more often. While I enjoy making random comments about failpugs and soloing 5-man instances, I find myself embarrassed to write up what my little 10-man raiding Guild has been doing in the game. The WoW-blogs I follow are on my watchlist because they veer away from minutae like boss kills and Guild firsts. I’m afraid that if I focus on the same, this blog will become about as interesting as a dull red brick.
That said, I should mention that the parts of my old blog I enjoy the most are the bits where I talk about precisely that – about where my Guild and I are in our respective raiding careers, usually. I’m prone to fits of nostalgia, so when it’s mentioned that slightly over a year ago, I first set virtual foot upon Northrend’s shores, I positively swoon. Rereading old posts that skirt around long-lost drama in Guardians of Veeshan or ASTIG brings back memories. I suppose that makes me a sentimental fool. I dispute nothing in that statement.
So let me, in the spirit of fueling future sentiment, update you with what we’ve been up to.
Three weeks ago, the Plague Works opened up for adventurers large and small, and like good raiders, we tramped in full of piss and vinegar. We thought we’d down Festergut and Rotface easily before wiping incessantly on Putricide, but alas, it was not meant to be. After a few wipes on Precious and Stinky, we proceeded to die time after time on Festergut. It was only on the very last attempt of the day – our raid leader Az had to leave for someone’s 40th birthday party – that we downed the abomination. We returned the next day to wipe a few times on Rotface, then called it. Incidentally, that was the first week that we one-shot everything in Icecrown Citadel up to the new wing. Well, except for the Gunship Battle, but I’ve already alluded to that in a previous post.
So two weeks ago, we came back – and failed to down Festergut.
The details aren’t important. We are, in fact, still arguing about whether or not Festergut parry gibs – some of us are of the opinion that he does, and that the obvious response is for tanks to adjust their hit and expertise, while others are convinced that there is another reason why our tanks are taking 40k++ damage in less than two seconds. What matters is the fact that we weren’t able to down Festergut a second time.
Here’s what we did when we couldn’t down Festergut: we marched back into Naxxramas (the raid weekly was Anub’rekhan, so Naxx was in our rotation) and one-shot everything – and in the process, we earned the Undying title. It took us just over two hours.
Then we flew down to the Obsidian Sanctum and, after a few unsuccessful attempts, killed Sartharion with three drakes up, giving us the title ‘of the Nightfall’.
To top off this treat, we went into Ulduar and killed XT-002 Deconstructor on hard mode. No title for that, but we had been itching to do that for months. And we knew what was next: Iron Council hard mode, the first real step towards unlocking Algalon.
So this weekend just past, we cleared the first wing of Icecrown Citadel again, then stopped – we had some Guild drama involving a hacked account – before clearing out Sarth 3D again (for two or three guys who missed it, plus Sartharion was the weekly raid target). Then we went into Trials of the Grand Crusader for the first time and downed the Northrend Beasts.
I’ve never owned a piece of equipment with the word “Heroic” on it, but that’s changed now. I walked away with a Belt of the Frozen Reach.
Then we went back into Ulduar and took out the Iron Council in hard mode. I got to tank Steelbreaker – and of course, I died. But we killed him, and I got the Archivium Data Discs to start off the Algalon key questline.
And that’s where we are today – we haven’t gotten any closer to downing Festergut again, or any more bosses in the Plague Works and newly-opened Blood Elf Wing. I’m sure we’ll get there sooner or later. In the meantime, we’re taking care of old business. We’ll be knocking on Algalon’s door in a month or so, and Arthas’s not long after that. It’s just a matter of time.
And as for the post title – GuildOx says it’s true. Server Nagrand-US. 10-man strict progression.
I’m glad we finally beat Ghetto Smurfs. My pride was taking a beating.
