Last week was Old World night and it was pretty much a flip of the coin… AQ40 or Black Wing Lair (BWL). Thanks to Prelimar, we knew it wasn’t going to be a cake walk, so really it just came down to which we thought we could do before 1am when one of our Tanks had to log. We chose BWL because one of our crew had done it the hard way, uphill both ways in the snow back at level 60… so someone knew which corner to turn and when.
There were only 7 of us as Zupa was otherwise disposed, so off we trotted to the zone.
Of course 1/2 of us had no idea where we were going… memory is a fragile thing, especially after so long, but soon enough we had found the orb, clicked on it and all 5 of us where in BWL…
Mmmm, hang on, there are meant to be 7 of us…
Damn, 2 people are attuned, we will have to run UBRS…
Hey, where did all those Mobs come from… who pulled the room….
WTF Mr. Tree!?!
Clearing the unending trash just wont work! It isn’t trash in the traditional sense, and even with your feathers of uberness be struggling to solo it… Ohh dead… hope this isn’t setting the tone for the night
UBRS the slow way….
OK, so we need a quick run through UBRS.. go go go… no leave the trash… OK take out the trash… but do it on your own…
Everything was going fine until we got to Gyth & Rend Blackhand, then it was time for comedy of errors…
Error 1: You can’t skip the event, don’t jump the other way… Ohh you are behind a closed grate… great!
Comedy 1: Take Gyth down slowly until Rend Blackhand dismounts then finish it off… all good in theory.. it’s slow at 60 and at 70 you can get a couple of shots off before Rend dismounts… At 80, we had 1 shot both of them before they were in the room… Event failed due to uberness.
Error 2: Wait for the mobs to come out of the grates… don’t run behind it… nevermind…
Comedy 2: Tank kites Gyth… no DPS at all… still scared that tank may accidentally fail event due to doing too much damage.. Ohh there’s Rend, ohh Rend’s dead… all done.
Comedy 3: General Drakkisath.. remember when he was hard, there was all sort of planning, strategy etc… I wish I had the time to get more than 3 spells off… and that was only because most people were asleep I think.
Back to BWL
Razorgore the Untamed
What. A. Blast!
Seriously awesome fun.. I was doing AoE coverage for the Mr Z! while he mind controlled Razorgore. I was burning mana like there was no tomorrow, but seriously, that is one awesome fight. if you have never done it before you want to grabs a 1/2 dozen of your mates and give it a go.
Just remember your objective is to MC Razorgore and protect the chaneller while you use Razorgore to kill the eggs.
This would have been an insane fight at 60 with 40 people stretched to the limit.
He did drop me 1st piece of the Netherwind set… Happy Mage. But MP5???
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
This was a fun fight… it’s already pretty clear that Dragons are the order of the day.. nothing special to report on this one, but it’s fun to see a big one like this drop before you’ve had the chance to wind up any sort of rotation.
I haven’t mentioned much loot yet.. there was lots of loot, but of course it is all relative… 3 pieces of loot between 40 people would make people sad these days…
That said, there would have been one happy Hunter with this drop… Oh well, time to flex the DE finger…
Broodlord Lashlayer
Lashlayer was no challenge, but then not much was, except that someone kept pulling extra trash mobs… No it wasn’t me, sure I didn’t want an easy run, but I was being a good little Gnome on Friday.
Where was the Hunter?
Well that was a mistake
We clove through the trash like butter… it was fun, but slow going.. if only there was a way to speed the process up…
Mmmm maybe pulling entire rooms (unexpectedly) wasn’t the way to speed things up.
Maybe that was a mistake… even TomTom (I think it’s TomTom giving the commentary near my portrait) thinks so…
Mr. Tree… you will need to settle down or be disowned by your friends… not sure why the other 5 are so uptight tonight though…
Firemaw
Firemaw was fun.. lots of fun… because people died.. yeah I know that’s sad…
For the last 50% it appeared that there was only a healer and I alive, turned out there was a tank in there somewhere too, but it was a buzz thinking we were actually going to wipe, then pulling the rabbit out of the hat.
Ebonroc & Flamegor
Don’t remember anything special about Ebonroc or Flamegor… another dragon… another dead dragon… or two
Chromaggus
Chromaggus on the other hand was fun.
We wiped once, but it wasn’t Chromaggus per se that did the deed… although it was his debuffs that caused my mates to turn on the raid.
The thing that struck me about this fight, was that you needed to use an exploit (the funny pillar) to avoid the damage. Mr Offspec told me in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t an exploit to drag the dog 1/2 way through the instance to a specific spot on a ramp where most of the raid could hide from it’s effects… in fact, it was working as intended… Blizzard designed the encounter this way.
WTF!?! So here’s an “exploit” built by Blizzard as the only way of defeating the encounter… but hey, don’t use things that may or may not be an exploit in the game… seriously, there needs to be a pop-up…
This exploit is working as intended
Yes, yes, I know all loot is hunter loot…. but how much Hunter loot is going to drop? Seriously!
Ohh what’s that… mmm this naughty Gnome is going to roll need on those Nemesis Spaulders.. just to DE them, then tell all my Warlock readers about it….
Dear Warlocks. I rolled need on a lock set piece, purely so I could disenchant it!
BWL (Black Wing Love)
Apart from the over abundance of Dragons, BWL is a beautiful place. The view from Nefarian’s balcony is stunning, taking in 2 zones.
As we were approaching Nefarius (for the 2nd time from memory), Zupa came online. I just had to tell him what an amazing place this was. The encounters in here are fantastic, lots of crazy variables to take into account. Sure it was a breeze as an 80, but every one of the encounters was interesting.. probably would have been more interesting if the bosses lasted longer, but I still had a great time.
Foolsss…Kill the one in the dress!
Lord Victor Nefarius
So we had reached Lord Victor Nefarius without any major problems.
Once again the dynamics of this fight are great and we were challenged… 3 times we were challenged, before we threw out hands up and admitted defeat.
Don’t get me wrong, I am sure we could have taken him down, we just got unlucky.
We have decided to take the luck out of the experience next time by crafting a few of the cloaks that are specifically designed for this fight (and one other from memory). Of course for that I needed the Cindercloth Cloak pattern, which I promptly went and ground out before heading back to town.
So we will be back to BWL, probably next month, equipped with crappy cloaks that will get a single use.. but it will be worth it.
Gnomeaggedon’s BWL Review
My BWL experience 10/10
We lost a couple of people then. It was an early night due to other commitments… but my night wasn’t over yet…
There are naughtier Gnomes out there than me!
Popped into Ironforge for a quick repair, restock and bag drop, and what do I see…
A very naughty Gnome…
Two things struck me…
- It’s a female Gnome letting it all hang out… you think there are a bunch of teenage Gnome lovers out there that are more likely to buy from her? (It’s OK Kriz.. I know you aren’t a teenager, but it’s still ok to admit your liking for Gnomette cleavage).
- She looks like she’s a Rogue… now tell me, would you trust a Rogue with your RL money?
Killing time and Achievements, one fish at a time
We had lost all of our tanks, so while I waited till an interested tank rolled up, I got in a spot of fishing…
1,000 fish caught since Achievements came into being…
I seriously need to get a life…
One serve of Ahune to take away please
Our Tankadin came back online, so I was going to get a crack at that Scorchling, “one” more time.
Zupa even came and joined us…
Zupa even got an upgrade… you wouldn’t believe what it was…
Yep, one of those 3g Vendor Cloaks… well at least someone found a use for them!
Unfortunately there were no Scorchlings about… another year goes by without a sighting by Gnomeaggedon.
Consolation Prize
I did pickup something to turn Krizzlybear’s heart to Ice.
It was kind of by accident… you see as our resident Disenchanting Enchanter, I just roll Greed on everything in 5 mans. It’s just what I have been doing for ages… it’s what my mates want me to do… So I do.
Unfortunately for Mr. Offspec, he threw up a message in /party chat asking only people that WANTED it roll for it. Why he didn’t SPEAK up sooner I will never know… what’s the point of being on Vent if you can’t get urgent messages out.
Anyway, end result was I won the roll… he was very disappointed
I however, had a consolation prize…
Now I just need to find some bag space.
Gnomer and Out!
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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/07/10/
gnome-weekend-that-was-bwl/
The Ahune scythe is groovy (lucky sod) – thanks for the read.
I just wish it scaled… I would even consider respec’ing if that was a level 80 toy…
“event failed due to uberness” is going to be my new battle cry.
: D
Ahh it’s hard being sooo uber…
And we are looking pretty uber right now in Naxx 10… well in comparison to usual anyway
Very nice win on the scythe.
I was in vent with my mates and the 2 people that could equip it (me and the priest) had decided that we were rolling on it and asked the others to pass.
The paladin wasn’t listening, also rolled and won it.
He can’t even equip it. >.<
Your gold-selling "rogue" appears to be running with a shield. Makes her not a rogue. =)
Bloody Paladins… Yeah I’m holy, you can trust me… not…
Mmm my Rogue isn’t a rogue afterall, but is watching out for backstabbers with that shield on her back…
To this day, Blackwing Lair remains my favourite instance. The fact that you found Vaelastrasz so easy is a bit of a mixed blessing. At level 60 he was far and away the most challenging fight in the instance. At level 80 you kill him before his fight mechanics come into play, so you’re not really doing the Vaelastrasz we spent three months wiping on. That’s good on one hand because it means you got to see the rest of an awesome instance. On the other hand, you’re missing one of the most badass boss fights in the game.
Picture this. Main Tank speaks to the dragon and starts the fight. Tank starts building threat, druids start spamming regrowth and healing touch on main tank. A priest in every group is spamming Prayer of Healing over and over and over in an attempt to keep their groups alive. Only the tanks are doing dps for the first few seconds, then everyone lets rip at once. Someone with a mana bar gets the Burning Adrenaline debuff, starts doing insane dps, runs to a safe spot, blows up and dies. If you’re lucky, it’s not a healer. Then the MT gets it, MT2 steps up to the tanks spot and the two tanks start doing an “aggro handover”. MT2 must be 1 on threat before MT1 blows up or Vael’s going to turn to face whoever is 1 on aggro, breathe, and wipe the raid. Meanwhile, more mana classes are dying from Burning Adrenaline and dps is dropping. The raid leader is going nuts, swapping people from groups with dead healers to groups with live healers and dead dps. MT2 gets Burning Adrenaline, half your dps and healers are dead, MT3 steps up to changeover aggro with MT2, Rogues are popping Vanish to lose threat. You’re in the Execute phase now and the Fury Warriors are starting to sweat, knowing that they have no way to drop threat, but if they don’t push the dps now, one of them’s going to have to strap on a shield and become MT4, assuming you still have any healers left alive by then, and this is all in the days before we had Omen…
It was an epic fight, in every sense of the word. Real shame you can’t get much of an appreciation for it at level 80.
Oww yeah… that sounds totally insane, like totally and completely insane.
It is a shame that we didn’t get to experience it in full… maybe I wont dps next time, I will just sit back and watch the fun unfold…
“Ohh what’s that… mmm this naughty Gnome is going to roll need on those Nemesis Spaulders.. just to DE them, then tell all my Warlock readers about it….
Dear Warlocks. I rolled need on a lock set piece, purely so I could disenchant it!”
Why you little…
/target Gnomer
….
/sigh
It’s not your day today, little man.
/hug /smirk
Spared?
SPARED?
Ohh yes, Saresa was right… you Locks need more evil… you are looking it!
Maybe you have become Waradins, or PaliLocks, or Lockadins or something… getting a bit pure of heart I think…
It’s either than, you are running scared from a Gnome Mage….
Naaah, not likely…