Tuesday (27 Oct) - Making Wild Jealous

Tuesday (27 Oct) - Making Wild Jealous

One of the things JB has found very entertaining is catching on with a group that is out to get Achievements for doing the pre-WotLK raids. JB has walked the halls of Karazahn already (or at least a portion of Kara). On Tuesday she had a chance to join a group that wanted to do Blackwing Lair (BWL). Unless there is a heavy guild presence behind groups like this, they tend to fragment and die before finishing, because there seems to be an expectation that a half dozen level 80s can walk in, show their epeen, wave their weapons around, and collect their achievement. The Kara run, for example, started out well, but at the first setback raiders started leaving, and the whole raid soon collapsed. JB was happy to have seen as much as she did, but got no achievement because we didn't finish.

So JB was justified in being a bit skeptical of the BWL group. BWL is a level 60 dungeon tuned to require forty raiders. The encounters are all unique and beating them requires understanding how each fight should be handled. A group of level 80s can muscle through a lot of level 60 elites, but someone needs to know when finesse is required, by knowing the fights. JB didn't know the raid leader organizing the run, nor his guild, and let the first few requests for raiders go by. The raid leader was persistent, though, and had gotten the tanks and healers he needed. Just a few more DPS, the raid leader pleaded.

JB's desire to see the inside of BWL got the better of her sensible nature, and she responded: "Need an elemental shaman?" The raid invite was immediate.

JB was the tenth player invited to the raid. The raid leader had specified that he would accept only level 80s. JB qualified, of course, although my guess is that she was the least geared of everyone present in the raid. The raid leader was also up front about letting us know that we could not enter BWL directly because entering that way (teleported via an Orb outside the entrance to LBRS (Lower Blackrock Spire) still requires each raider to have the BWL attunement. Odd that with Blizz dropping attunements for most everything else (such as Kara), it's still required to enter BWL through the Orb. We would have to go through LBRS to get into BWL.

Although JB was the tenth raider invited, she was the second to arrive at Blackrock Mountain and clamber down the massive chain which stretched across a boiling, molten lava lake far below, to the Summoning Stone. JB and the main tank Summoned of the rest of the raid, which had grown to 13 raiders.

Then came what might be the most challenging part of the whole event. Climbing up the chain in the other direction, jumping down into almost total darkness, feeling your way up a steeply sloping slab of rock, and gaining a foothold a long leap away from the ledge leading to LBRS. Wild has made entire posts about that Leap. The many, many nights when he missed that ledge over and over and over; the huge wash of relief when boots slammed down on the ledge and Wild practically fell into the balcony beyond the ledge; the nights when his first leap fell true; and later, when he could point and laugh at others struggling with that jump from his perch on the balcony, having finally become an expert at it.

JB climbed that chain, followed blindly up into the rocks behind a couple of other raiders in front of her, saw the top of the slope and the beckoning balcony ledge, and jumped - then feeling the breeze of her descent as she passed beyond the ledge and landed lightly on the balcony. Jealous yet, Wild? One jump. A perfect record of success.

Thirteen level 80s entered LBRS. We had two well geared tanks, a pally and a death knight. We had healers, but JB did not know who they were or how many. JB didn't care. JB was DPS, and that thought brought a fierce grin to her face.

The thirteen swept through LBRS like a tidal wave, level 60 elites going down in one or two shots so fast JB got better DPS with her dagger than with her spells. We reached a room with a barred grate the size of the door needed to contain King Kong. The great grate opened several times to admit bosses for slaughter, and we killed them with glee.

But the last boss failed to show. We waited. And waited. The room we were in had no exit except through that big grate, and it remained stubbornly closed. The raid leader finally had to admit that the encounter had bugged. Sometimes, if the bosses are killed too quickly, this has been known to happen. There was nothing we could do but hearth out, reassemble, and start all over.

Two raiders suddenly had pressing issues and had to leave. I felt a little sorry for the raid leader. All that work to get a raid together, and it was falling apart before we even got to BWL. Surprisingly, though, there were no further defections, and by the time everyone had been re-Summoned we'd even added back another raider. We were now twelve.

Twelve was a bad number for JB. Twelve turned out to be the number of times it took for JB to make that leap to the balcony the second time around. Ok, so it probably wasn't that many. But JB was the last to make it across, where she had been among the first the last time. Well, JB is glad that she did not have to make that leap every week like Wild had had to - for months.

We powered through LBRS again, and again faced the wave of bosses coming through the large gate. The raid leader threatened expulsion from the raid if anyone failed to follow directions. The tempo was slowed way down, allowing a lot more time between waves, and DPS was held in check to make sure bosses did not die too fast. The ploy worked, we got past that encounter, and then pushed easily through the rest of LBRS and into BWL.

The Stairs

The stairs leading to the first level and the first chamber are the first thing you see upon entering BWL. There were just 12 of us, but picture 40 raiders crowding those stairs. Razorgore is the first encounter, in a room full of dragon eggs. Wild's blood still stains the crevices of the stone floor from countless lost battles here, and no few victories, as well. JB had heard the stories. Razorgore is controlled through a mind control device on a platform, and forced to destroy the eggs while his minions flood the chamber and try to stop us. The mobs come in seemingly endless numbers, rushing from all four corners of the room. Positioning was critical in those early battles, and so it was now, although the strat was somewhat different. What was very encouraging was that there actually was a strategy laid out, rather than the "Let's get her!" Ghostbuster strategy so often used, and failing. Half the raid stayed on the platform to protect the controller, while the other half followed Razorgore, making sure he was not hindered in destroying the eggs. JB stayed on the platform, firing away at everything that came at them. Once we had enough eggs destroyed, the last of the mobs fled. We released Razorgore and engaged him directly. Even with level 80s, it took some time to batter him down, but Razorgore fell.

We tackled Vaelastraz next, waking and killing him without any need to take the special precautions so critical back in the day.

The Suppression room was next.


Things were going to get crazier from this point on, and JB asked in raid chat if someone was being soulstoned. We had a warlock with us, and a soulstone would allow a raider to rez (always someone who could rez others) after a fight so that we wouldn't all have to troop back in from the beginning. It's a long, long run from the graveyard into and through all of LBRS and then into BWL. Save it, said the raid leader. We won't need it, because we won't wipe.

We battered our way through the Suppression room (a name that brings nightmares to those old guard who fought in that hellish place) running in slow motion due to the Traps that blanketed the room. We did not bother to disable the traps, but mooooved ohhhhhhhhhhh soooooooooo sloooooooowly, killing in equally slow motion as we went. Broodlord stopped us for a short time, but only because we could deal death at only half speed.

Past Broodlord was Firemaw. We had left many mobs still standing in the room we had just left, but no matter, we were all about moving forward. Firemaw has an ability called Flame Buffet, which is an AoE that both stacks and doubles up the damage every second for up to twenty seconds. Level 60 raiders literally found somewhere to hide out of line of sight of Flame Buffet when it was cast, as death was quick otherwise. Firemaw also has a knockback.

We got the worst of all conditions against Firemaw. He was not turned away from the raid, and the raid ignored the blast furnace AoE from Flame Buffet, while a Wing Buffet knocked raiders back into the other room, aggroing a large army of mobs we had not bothered to kill. JB self-healed as fast as she could, but the combination of Flame Buffet and aggroing mobs brought her down. And not just her. The raid wiped.

All was not lost, though. JB had her reincarnate and could have rezzed, but the warlock had soulstoned a pally even though the raid leader had said no. The pally popped, and a level 61 elite mini-boss still milling about saw him. The pally took him on, and we cheered and jeered as the pally took forever to kill the mob, while the poor, frustrated mob was so ineffectual the pally never got below 99% health.

The wipe cost us two more raiders deciding to leave, including one of our tanks. We got everyone that was left rezzed and back to full health and mana, and got another raider to join us. We were now eleven.

We were careful with Firemaw the second time, and down the dragon went.

So the tank that left us then came back. Whatever. We were back to 12.

From that point, in quick succession, we brought down Ebonroc, Flamegor, and even the difficult Chromaggus with smooth efficiency.

That left just the final boss, Nefarian.

Wild has been there. Wild has fought Nefarian many times. Wild even soloed him once - at level 60 - unsuccessfully, of course. Wild was so obsessed with BWL that he made a video of him walking the deserted dungeon at the end of one of the raids. Here it is:

Well, here is where it was supposed to be, but the blogger site doesn't seem to be able to upload it. Too bad.

Anyway, Wild did not kill Nefarian that night, nor did Wild ever kill him back in his level 60 days.

Back to the present. JB and the rest of the raid entered Nafarian's chamber. He sits on his throne, untouchable until we start the fight. Raiders elbowed each other to sit on the throne with Nefarian, getting snapshots. A very long, complex strategy was narrowed down to a very simple approach. Everyone in the raid crowded behind the throne, and we let the army of spawning mobs come to us. And we killed them. And we killed them. And we killed them. And when there were no more mobs, we took on Nefarian. Nefarian made the fight look good, but he was really no match for 12 level 80 raiders. For the first time, JB got to experience the fall of Nefarian.

JB got her Achievement:


Even more importantly, JB got her Trophy pic:


Eat your heart out, Wild.

PS - Says Wildshard, you are forgetting something, JB. Wild may not have killed Nefarian as a level 60, but that doesn't mean he didn't get the Achievement. Wild did get to kill Nefarian, a not so long ago four months or so. So there.