WoW: My Week in Karazhan

The past week had been a very fun and exciting experience. Our guild was raiding Karazhan and, for one such as myself who have never raided before, I was totally looking forward to it.

For those reading out for curiosity and wondering how come a game can last for one week, let me explain. A raid dungeon resets every Tuesday (maintenance day) so it means we are given around 6 days to attempt the dungeon, during which our progress will be saved.


Day 1:

We started off with Attumen the Huntsmen. He wasn't very tough since we had attempted him several times on previous trial runs. It took one try to down him.

After that, we made our way to Moroes. We weren't very sure if we were able to take him out this time because we were unsuccessful during our trial runs. Fortunately, we were well-coordinated this time, and after one wipe, we were soon dining with Medivh's undead house servant at the dinner table.

We were feeling lucky and decided to try out the Maiden of Virtue. We cleared our way to her room but got got thrashing. No hat trick for us. We called it a night and went back to read up on her.


Day 2:

We attempted the Maiden again, mixing up several strategies in the middle of the fight. The 10-second Repentance was the killer. The healers figured it out and we managed to down the evil slut. It was not a complicated fight compared to the Moroes encounter.

We began clearing the way to the next event, the Opera House, which was a random boss. We got the 'Wizard of Oz' parody. Needless to say, with four bosses running loose on the stage, chaos ensued and it was a wipe. Reclearing trash wasn't fun so that was it for the day.


Day 3:

Everyone started throwing ideas in guild chat before the raid begin. The GM came up with a plan and we decided to follow it. The roster for our raid saw a change we got a Warlock in this time.

And so, we went to attempt the 'Wizard of Oz' again. The character react like that children's tale. The Warlock feared the cowardly lion; the Warrior sundered the tin man till he was rusty enough for the Frost Mage to kite; the Fire Mage kept burning the straw man to keep him disoriented. One by one, they fell. All that was left was Dorothee and her puppy, Tito. We tried to take Dorothee out first but we accidentally killed her puppy. Hell hath no fury like a girl who lost her puppy. We soon got her down and then the wicked witch appeared. Everyone was in high spirits as we dodged her spinning tornado of doom while focusing all dps on her.

When all was said and done, it was curtains for the evil Crone. We were surprised that we managed to clear the Wizard of Oz event so smoothly.

We began moving on to our next destination, the Guardian's Library. It was there that we would meet the first real challange in Karazhan, the Curator (Did I mention that he drops tier 4 gloves?). Unfortunately for us, the Curator owned us bad. We only got him down to 70% at best. We decided to call it a night.


Day 4:

We attempted the Curator again. I was told to dps while the Protection Warrior tanked. It made me very happy that hybrid Arms Warriors like myself have a place in Kara (kudos to Blizzard). We did better but no cigar. Everyone was demoralized and the 20+ min trash respawns were adding insult to injury. There was no progress for the night.


Day 5:

This was the last day we could do Karazhan before the reset. I blew a lot of money to get my dps gear properly enchanted and bought all sorts of buff potions from the Auction House (byebye epic flying mount). I noticed all my raid members going all out at the Auction House, too. It looks like everyone was determined to down the Curator on this faithful day.

And so, we cleared our way in and it was time to try our luck again. The battle was fast & furious as everyone was going after the flares to dps them down before they overwhelmed the raid. Things went out of control for a moment but we soon got it back on track. I could feel that the tension was thick and everyone was totally immersed in the battle. Around 6+ minutes into the fight, the Curator enraged. He was down to 15%. This was our cue; everyone went ahead and wailed on the boss. I walked in and started spamming Execute. I didn't even know what was going on around me. All I remember was hearing was the constant yelling on ventrilo and seeing the damage numbers from my Execute. Then it was over. The Curator went down and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Everyone celebrated over the guild's first tier 4 drop which was awarded to the other tank. After the celebrations were over, there was one last thing to do for the night; the Chess event!

We started clearing up the loooong stairways in the Guardian's Library as we ascended up Karazhan. It was probably like 2+ hours worth of trash mobs. Along the way, we passed the rooms to all the optional bosses (Illhoof, Aran, Nethersprite). We finally made our way to the chess event, right before Prince Malchezaar's room.

It was a fun and casual game of chess with a WoW twist. We could attempt it again even if we lost. When we finally beat it, it was two free epic loot. By then, it was already 3 am. It was a nice way to conclude our last day in Karazhan. So that's it for now until the next reset. Let's hope we get further next time.