Endgame 1 - Ulushnar 0

I've been meaning to do a post on Zul'Aman for a few days now, but something bigger's come up.

A while ago, I posted an application with a group that contains a couple of RL friends. They're one of the more advanced groups on the server and currently are doing Black Temple and Mount Hyal. They were looking for a Protection Paladin, and I was frustrated with CD's lack of progress so I made the offer. I wasn't that well geared at that point though, so ultimately I got knocked back.

I recieved notification last week from my friend that they were re-examining old applications and again looking for a Protadin. I figured I'd be turned down again, but then on Saturday my mate called me and told me the Melee Rep wanted to interview me for the slot.

One interview later and I was being asked to come on an attunement run to Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep that night. I regretfully posted the news on the CD forums and decided to go for it. It was met by some snide comments and some sad-but-supportive remarks. I think some of my friends there were hurt by my defection, but I knew if I didn't take this chance now, then I'd regret it and end up resenting them more.


After that, I read up on the boss tactics and prepared myself for the night ahead.

It seemed no amount of preparation would be enough.

We started with Fathom-Lord Karathress who went down first time. My job on the kill was to tank one of the adds, who summons a pet to help him. Was a fairly straightforward (almost boring) kill, which netted me the first part of the quest to get attuned to the Black Temple.

After that, it was on to Lady Vashj. It's a fairly complicated fight and at least a quarter of the raid was new to it (other potential applicants along to get attuned). I think it took us eight attempts to down him and you could tell the veterans of the fight were getting irritated and frustrated. That, said I managed to net the token for my first piece of Tier 5, so that was nice!

After that, it was on to Tempest Keep to down Al'ar and High Astromance Solarian. Al'ar went fairly smoothly, even if I was in part responsible for a wipe on the first attempt. After that, Solarian was a joke, although it was a lot of fun to AoE tank the adds she summons.

We were tired at that point, so it was decided to leave Kael'thas until monday. Some of the guys were still up for a raid, so I ended up joining them for my first Karazhan run since 2.3. We cleared the entire place in three hours. Would have been faster if not for my mana breaks and a couple of dumb wipes. Still it was fun, and I noted with wry amusement that Moroes dropped his dumb belt now that I no longer needed it. I also got a quite silly 22 badges to add to my collection.

Yesterday, I ended up going on a run with some of them to Zul'Aman. We cleared all the bosses easily enough, with only the last three (Dragonhawk, Hexlord and Zul'jin) requiring more than one pull to accomplish. No loot to speak of, but another 18 badges for my collection. I may be able to afford the leggings sooner than I thought!

Last night, I was supposed to be going to Tempest Keep with them to finish off Kael'thas and complete my attunement to Mount Hyjal. But in the end, I decided to cancel my application. They're a great group, no doubt, but their attitude's kinda foreign to me. I miss the few friends I have remaining in CD I guess, although my bridges there are probably well and truly burnt. I play this game to relax and unwind from my intermittantly stressful job, but raiding on their level as a relative newbie is almost more stressful than work!

So I'm currently sans raidgroup and enjoying it. I'm currently taking Ulushnar through the Battlegrounds so that I can earn enough honor to grab a nice mace when Arena Season 3 opens up. I'm also enjoying the new Daily Quests for Battlegrounds and Heroics, although I do tend to cherry pick the Heroics that I enjoy doing.