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.

Avast Ye Mateys!

So, should I do the Bloodsail grind? I figure on this special day I should at least consider it.

The upside - an extremely rare pet and awesome clothing.

The downside - I've spent hours methodically trying to track down every Steamwheedle quest and I'm revered with 3 of the factions and almost revered with Everlook. If I abandon those factions, I'll never get back to revered or exalted (which is my goal).

The question is - goblin towns in Northrend? Yes or No?

I think I just might want to grind this, but it'll be tough to lose all that time I spent grinding Steamwheedle Rep...

On Mounts...

Previously I talked about collecting mounts - I thought that maybe you'd need 50 or 60 mounts to get the special one, well...announced today - you need 75! We do know though that there will be plenty of new mounts with the expansion and I figured I personally get about 60 prior to the expansion, so 75 shouldn't be too tough. Here are some of the great new options available:

• Leading the Cavalry - Obtain 75 mounts. Reward - Albino Drake
  
• For The Alliance! - Slay the leaders of the Horde. Reward - Black War Bear
  
• For The Horde! - Slay the leaders of the Alliance. Reward - Black War Bear
  
• Glory of the Hero - Complete the Heroic Dungeon achievements Reward - Red Proto-Drake
  
• Glory of the Raider - Complete the Normal Difficulty raid achievements Reward - Plagued Proto-Drake
  
• Heroic: Glory of the Raider - Complete the Heroic Difficulty raid achievements Reward - Black Proto-Drake
  
• What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been - Complete the world events achievements. Reward - Violet Proto-Drake

So I hope to get the Albino Drake not too long after Wrath comes out - I think I just have to figure out how to get a few more mounts that I don't have already. I'll probably work on the Zhevra tonight and then see what all the battleground mounts require and start working on those. I'm pretty sure that the mounts I listed a couple days ago are all the mounts available to me at the current time and other than the gladiator mounts, I don't think there's any other ones possible in the current game - so getting to 75 I think is almost impossible until the expansion comes out.

However, it will be fun to start collecting these mounts alongside my pets and not have to worry about bag space!

Zul'Jin Down!

Last night, for the first time, we fully cleared Zul'Aman on one night. Last week, we cleared all but Zul'Jin on night one and on night two, while I was unable to make it, the Gold Team took Zul'Jin down. Last night, we powered through and completely destroyed dem trolls. We got three timed chests and had 5 minutes left on the timer - too little to try for the fourth, but there are ample places where we can pick up the pace and group adjustments that could be made for more DPS (though I love our group and don't want to see anyone go - we can just work on gear and specs though).

I certainly had a fun time blowing stuff up - putting out 22% of the damage - over 1,000 sustained DPS. On Nalorakk, even with the silences, I put out over 1,300 DPS - thank you madame shadow priest! It was great last night, not once did I have to worry about mana. Sure, I evocated 15 times, but I really don't think I absolutely had to any of those times. Gaining 135,000 mana back via Vampiric Touch is lovely and all I had to focus on was damage. It was wonderful - I did over 700,000 more damage than the next person (4% more) and was able to just have fun doing damage rather than chain chugging pots or wanding when I should be throwing fireballs.

Again, Hex Lord Malacrass decided to drop nothing for me and the third timed chest dropped a wonderful healing ring (so close to the DPS ring...). Zul'jin also dropped crap, and on the roll for Blood of Zul'Jin, I was stoked - I rolled a 94! I was going to have the blood to turn in for some gold and badges and I would have the achievement of downing Zul'Jin when the patch comes out, but no...the last person to roll decides to break out the magic dice and rolls 100. Congrats to you Matnocuido. Hopefully we can get Zul'Jin down every week now without issue and by default, I'll get the blood.

More on Achievements

As if you couldn't tell by now, I just cannot wait for the achievements to get here. It'll give me something to do every day to kill time until Wrath comes out. I already anticipating having a large lead over most other players due to my compulsiveness. But there's a lot of great achievements still to go. At last count, there's 850 achievements. I should probably re-install the beta to see how close I am now, but here are some that I hope to work on before Wrath is released:

• Cenarion War Hippogryph - Just 1600g and it's mine. Of course, I think it's less with my exalted status. But this will also help with my collecting of mounts in the expansion.
  
• Champion of the Naaru - This weekend I completed the Shattered Halls quest and I still have the Arcatraz quest to go. Hopefully I can bang that out and get Mag down before the patch hits to get the title.
  
• Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? - Raise your unarmed skill to 400 - I can get started on this now. Just have to find some poor animals to beat on.
  
• Exploration Achievements - I've already tried to go back and explore most of the older areas, but I should just quickly browse through my map and have the world explored before the patch comes out.
  
• Gurubashi Arena Grand Master - probably need to do this early in the morning, but getting the Arena Grand Master trinket should be pretty fun.
  
• Master Angler of Stranglethorn - it's been a while since I tried to win the Booty Bay fishing quest, but I'll have to take it up again and see if I can win. I've been close a few times, but have never won.
  
• My Sack is "Gigantique" - Just 1200g for this achievement.
  
• Old Ironjaw - guess I need start fishng in Ironforge.
  
• Twenty-Five Tabards - Hmm, no space to start collecting these now, but once the patch hits, I can go grab these since my pets will free up bag space. Also, once you buy it, you get credit for it and can sell it back.
  
• The Burning Crusader - Raise Honor Hold, Sha'tar, Lower City, Cenarion Expedition and Keepers of Time to exalted. I'm close, but still have a ways to go. I just need to get some groups going for these.
  
• The Key Master - I probably have most, if not all of these keys, but might be missing one I can go back and obtain prior to the patch.

I'm sure there's others, but these are some I can focus on before the patch hits.

I Just Can't Wait

So the currently accepted timeline has the major patch coming out mid-October and Wrath is scheduled for November 13. This next major patch will introduce quite a few changes, including pet and mount "stables." And while browsing the new achievements and blue posts on the forums, I saw a post that references a unique mount if you have a certain number of mounts collected. At the current time, I don't have free bag space to go and start collecting these mounts - my pets take up that space. But with the patch, my pets will go away and mounts will be stabled. All I will have to do is go around finding them.

Since I'm already exalted with 22 factions, that means I can get the following mounts:

• Great Blue Elekk, Great Green Elekk, Great Purple Elekk, Brown Elekk, Gray Elekk, Purple Elekk
  
• Cobalt Riding and War Talbuk, Silver Riding and War Talbuk, Tan Riding and War Talbuk, White Riding and War Talbuk
  
• Swift Frostsaber, Swift Mistsaber, Swift Stormsaber, Spotted Frostsaber, Striped Frostaber, Striped Nightsaber
  
• Winterspring Frostsaber
  
• Swift Brewfest Ram, Brewfest Ram
  
• Swift Brown Ram, Swift Gray Ram, Swift White Ram, Brown Ram, Gray Ram, White Ram
  
• Swift Brown Steed, Swift Palomino, Swift White Steed, Brown Hose Bridle, Chestnut Mare Bridle, Pinto Bridle
  
• Swift Green Mechanostrider, Swift White Mechanostrider, Swift Yellow Mechanostrider, Blue Mechanostrider, Green Mechanostrider, Red Mechanostrider, Unpainted Mechanostrider
  
• Blue Riding Nether Ray, Green Riding Nether Ray, Purple Riding Nether Ray, Red Riding Nether Ray, Silver Riding Nether Ray
  
• Azure Netherwing Drake, Cobalt Netherwing Drake, Onyx Netherwing Drake, Purple Netherwing Drake, Veridian Netherwing Dake, Violet Netherwing Drake
  
• Swift Blue Gryphon, Swift Green Gryphon, Swift Purple Gryphon, Swift Red Gryphon, Ebon Gryphon, Golden Gryphon, Snowy Gryphon
  
• Plus any Battleground Mounts I might grind.
  
• Plus the Zhevra refer-a-friend mount I plan on getting soon.

So that's a total of 60 plus any battleground mounts and the zhevra. I wonder what the number of mounts will need to be for the special mount? 60? 70? It's a lot of money to go buy all those mounts up, but something I'd definitely love to do once I have the space.

Plus, being able to possibly create a macro to summon a random land or flying mount would be amazing.