Into the Unknown

Give me a light so that I may tread into the Unknown,
Give me a sword so that I may protect myself, my clan,
Give me a soul so that I may yearn,
Give me a mind so that I may create,
Give me a heart so that I may love,
'Tis all myself I give to you, take me far into the Unknown.

Well, it's been about a week since the patch from hellfire and my DK has somewhat ironed out his current nerfed skills. I figured it might be time to at least try Ulduar out and it just so happens the guild that my guildies and I raid with, planned out two 10-man groups for this past weekend. As you all know, I am in the guild, Reservoir Dogs, but myself (DK tank), Pinksky (my wife and guild Holy Pally), Hedwig (our GM and Disc Priest), and Matheo (our Feral Druid tank) all found a guild, Band of Misfits, that loves to have fun while raiding and needed a couple tanks and healers to top off groups for 25-man runs. Hence we have been raiding with them for a couple months and loving it. We've been through 25-man Naxx and the guild leader/raid leader of BoM decided that the next step would be 10-man runs of Ulduar and once through 10-man we would recombine the groups from 25-man. Great idea if you ask me.

So anyway Saturday found us in Storm Peaks, facing the awe-inspiring archway into Ulduar. Everyone had reservations.....we knew that huge repair bills awaited us. So in we delved!
Let me tell you, this was my first time entering this instance. I entered and was amazed at how vast the inside was. I mean I know there are Titans involved...but dang!

So our RL, Lierthes, gives us the rundown on the mobs and how we kill things with the vehicles we control. Everyone hops in to their assigned wheels. I was running one of the siege engines. Now when we first found out about the first boss and how vehicles were involved I was pissed. First of all, I hate, and I mean HATE, Oculus and Eye of Eternity (EoE). Explanations we heard sounded like it would be like this fight but once we started it, I found it was more like Wintergrasp. And Wintergrasp I love. So while Lier was finishing the explanations, this tiny little motorcycle, at least compared to the tank I was in, voomed out to the mobs and back, which the mobs apparently did not like and our run into Ulduar ensued. We kept in a tight little group and just mowed thru all these mobs. It was FUN!

We knew we had to kill all the Giants in order to get Flame Leviathan out so we found and destroyed everything up until the boss area. They were the last two Giants and a couple groups of mobs. I was figuring we would pull the groups way back so we can buff and repair before hitting FL but a couple cycles and engines decided to rush foward and kill everything thus pulling the boss. Turns out that someone wasn't in vent and didn't hear us say, Pull BACK! So in for a copper and in for a gold! We all rush in after taking a quick repair and kill everything and FL rushes through his gate and attacks. We all knew what needed to be done and went forewith into the flames. I have to say on a misguided pull, 37% health left on FL was dang good but we wiped. Now begins the repair bills!

We come back in, gather onto the Formation grounds and buff up. We load back into our machines and proceed to wipe out FL and take his loot! We get our Emblem of Valor and he drops Flamewatch Armguards. Well both myself and the warrior tank roll and I win these blessed bands, which I later have chanted with Expertise because of our Expertise nerf in the Blood tree.

We then proceed to mount up and head for XT-002. On our way there we see off to our left, two Molten Colossi. We decided to take them out before someone pulls them. This was before we knew about the silence and the massive damage they do when pissed off. We do wipe but we take one of them down with us, only to find out they respawn if both aren't dead and that the one we killed actually dropped good loot, for the master looter went into effect. We all rez'd and ran in, hoping for a purple drop. What do you know! An epic neck dropped! Fervor of the Protectorate, another tank purple! What a lucky day! I lose the roll to the other tank, but I got the bracers. No complaints from me.

So we blow off the Moltens and head straight to XT-002. And for the sake of my fingers, I'll give ya'll the run down. We wipe about 8 or so times on him, decide to call it and come back on Sunday. Come back on Sunday continue to wip 7 or so more times try Razorscale twice, scream and rant and yell, WTH!!!! and go back to XT-002. Hit him 3 more times and finally get him to the enrage timer with just the healers and myself alive and end the night quite happy knowing that next week he will die and give us purple pixels. :)

All in all, I'd say we all did pretty good and will be ready for more Ulduar next week!

Also a lot more dailies will be involved this week. Repair bills killed my savings on all my toons.