Ragnaros Vanquished

Two nights ago, the Gold Team ventured into Zul'Aman once again determined to get three timed chests. Due to some oddities that I'm not even sure I can explain, we got none. Due to a prior commitment, I had to leave the raid early, but they continued on and fought valiantly.

Last night though, it was Darknight Resolution guild night and we were determined to tackle Molten Core. We started strong and were able to basically kill anything and everything without any problems whatsoever. Our goal for the night was to down Ragnaros as Kaldais was trying to obtain the Sulfuron Hammer. To do that, we of course had to get good and drunk. I started with some Autumnal Ale from my Brew of the Month club and quickly found I had an admirer, all the way down in Molten Core:


He followed me around for a while, but it was killing time, so we quickly marched forward. We had very little troubles with any boss and our DPS and AOE damage far outweighed anything any of the mobs could heal through. And before we knew it, we were standing before Majordomo himself.


He surrendered after we downed all of his protectors and after a quick jaunt down into the belly of the Core, we found him waiting there for us again! We challenged him to a fight, and he pulled out a new card on us and summoned the massive Ragnaros!



We fought our hardest to bring him down, and though I was crippled because I couldn't use my most powerful fire spells against him, we quickly succeeded and cleared all of Molten Core.



We quickly looted the body and, lo and behold, he dropped my Netherwind Pants! That now gives me three pieces of Tier 2 in under a week. Not too shabby. However, I now have no bag space and eagerly await the ability to stable all my pets.

After we looted, we all gathered up and took one last picture in the Core:


All in all, we had a great time, got some nice loots for some of our younger members, and Ryshat, a fellow pet collector I brought into the guild experienced his first raid ever! I also was able to earn a bit more Hydraxian Waterlords Reputation and I completed the Molten Core quest. One more clear and I'll be honored and be even closer to obtaining my Eternal Quintessence and douse the flames myself!

A New Mount

Last night, after my friendly rogue ally finished his Shattered Sun daily quests and finally reached exalted, he sent me a large sum of money. With this new influx of cash - I had two choices - buy a Gigantique Bag or a Cenarion War Hippogryph. I chose the latter. The bag can wait, but the new mount cannot! I love my new mount and wish I had purchased it earlier. The drakes are so common these days and the Nether Rays are too bumpy and the gryphons are just too old. So I'm quite pleased with my purchase and the Cenarion War Hippogryph achievement is complete.


On Thursday our guild is venturing into Molten Core and I'm hoping we can get Ragnaros down so I can complete the Molte Core Achievement. To make sure I complete the achievement, I need a piece of loot from him, so hopefully I can get lucky on one of the rolls or bribe the raid to give me an item. It would be great to get the Netherwind Pants to give me a third item in the set.

On another note, I returned four books to the Shen'dralar last night. After running Heliox through Stratholme a couple times, I had a few Frayed Abomination Stitchings to turn in with the Librams of Protection. I also ventured into the Plaguelands for some Blood of Heroes to use with Librams of Rapidity. Now I have 5 arcanums to return to the trolls in Zul'Gurub for 2,500 reputation with them. With those turn-ins, I'll be halfway through honored with them. With one more book return, I'll be halfway through friendly with the Shen'dralar. I also think I need to recruit the friendly rogue Tockett to hunt down Heavy Junkboxes for me so I can start working on my Ravenholdt reputation.

A Trip to Blackwing

It all started innocently enough, I had awoken from a nice nap and I asked some guildmates what they were up to. Some were fighting Coren Direbrew, others were doing their dailies on Quel D'anas, but then...Flamehelix spoke up, "I'm in Blackwing Lair." Always one for adventure, I quickly asked him if there was room in the forty person raid and, lo and behold, there was! After quickly exiting the Scryer in and talking to the friendly wand vendor about repairing my items, I was whisked through space via a warlock's portal and I was in!



There were these strange levers all over and a rogue was trying to disarm them. I inquisitively clicked on one and was unable to move at my regular speed for a while! There were whelps all around and the whole place was quite dark and foreboding. Unfortunately, prior to the run, I was unable to pester our wonderful banker, Moneyclip for a Onyxia Scale Cloak, so when we went up against Ebonroc, I died quite quickly. I thought I was in the correct position, but I was not. I also found out quite quickly that my fire-based spells would be nothing against these behemoths. I still can't figure out what was going on here though...



With Ebonroc down, we looted and I won the Netherwind Gloves! My first piece of Tier 2. Now that I have a piece, perhaps I need to find the rest...



Immediately after Ebonroc, there was another dragon to be had, Flamegor. Again, I was without my cloak, but was able to effectively hid behind a wall until the debuffs went away and able to actually participate in his death. Flamegor dropped the Netherwind Gloves again which I'm glad went to another mage in the group as I had just stepped in and swiped the gloves on the first boss kill. After Flamegor, another monstrous beast awaited us, Chromaggus.



Once we had taken down Chromaggus, we continued on, fighting our way through the massive dragonking on our way up to the throne room. Once we got there, it was quite an impressive sight to see Lord Victor Nefarius awaiting our arrival.



We quickly introduced ourselves and he didn't seem to enjoy our being there. He started firing shadowbolts at our party and summoned bone constructs to defeat us. We gathered up on his throne, destroyed the bone constructs and then he shifted...into the great black dragon Nefarian!



After he landed, he proceeded to beat on our tank for a while and we did our best to avoid his flame breaths as we hurled everything we had at him.



After a while though, he got quite sick of us hurting him and resummoned all of his bone constructs that we had killed earlier. Not knowing this was coming, I was standing a bit too close and the constructs absolutely destroyed me. Luckily there were others to pick them up and we were able to dispatch them for a second time.



After a lengthy fight, Nefarian went down. At first you feel a twinge of remorse for killing such a beautiful and grand creature, but then, after you realize he was trying to destroy you the whole time, it feels a bit better. There were many items to be had, including his head which we transported to Stormwind so all could revel in our victory, but again, my luck was high as I won the Netherwind Robe. I now have two pieces of the eight parts of Tier 2.



This Thursday, Darklight Resolution will venture into Molten Core and this weekend I might be able to go into AQ40, another far away place I have yet to visit. It certainly was a fun weekend and visiting Blackwing was quite amazing.