Months Behind!

Surreality is not huge on 10man content. We have a single 10s group running through ToGC at the moment, which is generally the same nine players (mostly officers) and a wild card. A good part of this is simpy us not having very many geared tank alts in the guild- we can’t try heroic Gormok just to watch undergeared dk tank alt #32 crumple to the first hit of impale. Unfortunately for a good part of us, though, this lack of more than one consistent 10man group means a large number of us are missing out on 10 man “Progression.”

Back when it was relevant content, our 10man progression group downed a little boss named Mimiron. Except, this wasn’t your normal mimiron. This was a mimiron who blanketed the room with fire and called down small firefighter bots, among other things. After a week of attempts on him, the general consensus of those in the group was “oh my god, I will stab myself with a rusty spork in the eye before considering running this fight again.” Those of us not lucky enough to be in that first Firefighter cried out in horror, but the launch of ToC shortly after distracted us from our self-pity party.

A month later, on a boring Sunday night during a stretch of time where our 25man progression was halted due to lack of attendance, we decided we’d do 10ulduar hardmodes for enjoyment. We figured we’d go for the easy ones, such as Heartbreaker/Hodir/Ignis Speed Kill(not a hardmode, but a meta req.), and leave the hard ones for never. However, through some strange form of luck, we one shot every hardmode/meta requirement from Ignis to Freya+3. We reached Mimrron, and dubiously decided to defeat the dastardly dgnome. Through some stroke of luck, we managed to 4 or 5 shot Firefighter- a fight that at least 1/2 of the raid had never seen before. We went on to wipe once on General hard before calling the raid at Yogg-Saron’s door, with the full intent of returning to visit.

This was September 27th. That id rotted in a Flea’d bear raid lead’s raid tabs for an entire month, while Liluye sat in /g and tried to garner interest in taking on 1light. One raid did try to make attempts, but it was 1:30ish in the morning, and apparently it’s hard to raid fights you’ve not done before while half the raid is snoring. After 3 or 4 attempts, they failed. October 25th, nearly a full month after I downed firefighter for the first time, and 2 and a half since surreality did, I got a text from a certain resto cow telling me that I was needed in the brain phase for bloodlust. Ecstatic, I broke a few laws rushing to my house to boot up my computer, and with high spirits we smashed 1light in the darkness. (In something like 2-3 attempts.) We then proceeded to use a dragon to lightly toast a few dwarves, and called it the night…with me needing two of the easiest hardmodes in the instance left for my meta- 4towers Flame Leviathan and Disarmed Kologarn. I’m not quite sure why I had two of the easiest achievements left up, especially since I have disarmed on my holy paladin who has only seen Uld once, but I needed them both.

Some tomfoolery happened last week, and I ended up missing those two bosses that I needed most. I did happen to get into the latter half of the raid, and managed to score a super qt 2.7 speed weapon off Cthulu’s lieutenant when we downed 1 light and I watched another 3 persons score their glory of the ulduar raider achievements. (I also managed to die on Mimiron to PEWx2, a mistake I haven’t made since people were still pretending “noob” was cool, ruining three raiders “Champion of Ulduar” title, but that’s a story for another time. >.<)

I finally got into Uld 10 again tonight, an Uldur group that was specially created by a few awesome people to ensure I finally got my drake. After some rocky attempts at Flame Leviathan (apparently, having six of us not knowing the fight is a bad thing!) we pressed on to Kolo and ripped his arms off like an angry wookie. I was spammed with achievements, and truly considered nerdscreaming over vent. After something like 12 weeks since our guild first got Firefighter (considered the benchmark hardmode achievement), I finally got my Glory of the Ulduar Raider and Rusted Proto-drake, which replaced my amber drake that every kids with a second grade reading level and access to a computer can get without making an effort. and, it’s 310% speed!

Yes, I know I was month’s behind with it. Yes, I know that 245-258 gear made it significantly more manageable than it was a tier of content ago. And, I know I’m probably going to get flak from random level 1 alts telling me that I got my mount when it didn’t matter anymore.

But really, I don’t care. To me, this was an achievement. Going from where I was 6months ago, where my computer was so bad that I died enough that I was at times considered a liability rather than a help, it’s exciting. Knowing that a huge part of our lack of success was simple apathy, and the fact that we’d go months at a time without stepping foot in Ulduar again, it was an achievement. Knowing that my guild leaders like me enough that they spent the past three days post-25 raids trying to get me my own drake makes me ecstatic. And, honestly, the fact that I have a mount that looks like a badass is an achievement in itself.

So yes, I was months behind. I might be months behind on my tribute to insanity too. However, I’m still having fun.and I’m still proud of what I’ve been able to do in this game.