Editor’s Warning: This post is long. If you don’t like em long you can skip straight to the good stuff here.

I’ve been the acting guild and raid leader for <Specced for Awesome> since the mid-TBC era. We started out as an extremely casual guild and delved headfirst into Karazhan with our motley crew of 10 or so raiders. Most of us had never raided before (that one time where I lolcleansed a ZG pug in vanilla doesn’t count). We dabbled in 5-mans here and there but Kara was that first hit of the hard stuff. We were hooked.

Months later we were clearing the entirety of Kara in one night. So what next? We naturally attempted to jump right in to Zul’Aman where the Amani trolls proceeded to have their way with us. ZA was challenging to say the least. Kara was (and still is) a great instance but it wasn’t really giving us the fix we needed. We really had no choice but to head into Gruul’s Lair and Magtheridon’s Keep if we wanted to progress. There was just one problem: we were a 10-man guild and these raids required 25.

So we did what we had to, we upped our recruitment efforts. We recruited pugs from heroics and Kara runs, we advertised in trade, solicited the unguilded and even braved the dreaded realm forums. It took a guild merger/acquisition but we finally got the numbers we needed.

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If you haven’t heard or seen the announcement yet…

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)
She has lurked in her lair and done battle with the many brave adventurers who travelled to that familiar location over the years. Now, in honor of the World of Warcraft 5-year anniversary, the dreaded brood mother Onyxia is being revamped to make a return to the forefront of Azeroth, as part of our big plans for the upcoming 3.2.2 content patch.

This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again.

Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet.

We’re very excited to bring this classic encounter back to provide a fun new experience for both new and veteran players. Further details will be available in the near future, and we will be setting up the Public Test Realms soon to help test out this fight along with all the new content we have planned for the patch. Keep an eye on the forums for updates!

I never got to experience Onyxia until I was able to 5-man her at level 70 so this is awesome news! The new rewards (woot another Judgement Crown) and the Onyxia Broodling mount are just icing on the cake.

Now based on Zarhyms description and the fact that they’re revamping and retuning the encounter for level 80 leads me to believe that the entire dungeon as it exists in the game right now will cease to exist (a la Naxxramas) Unfortunate news for those old-school raiders that like to relive the glory days. I’m guessing the original achievement will be given the Feat of Strength treatment.

I know this is a special occasion with it being WoW’s 5-year anniversary (have I really been playing this game that long?), but I really hope that they take this approach with some of the other content.

Update: Looks like Bornakk confirmed that the old version will get nyxed.

Jeeves is awesome, but they should’ve added a MOLL-E to the mats list and given him the ability to handle your mail. Seems like a butlerish thing to do, no? And why isn’t he sporting a tuxedo?

I’ve decided to post a few transmogrifications up for sale in order to help fund our trip to BlizzCon. CLICK HERE to buy!

SHOP NOW!

When we downed Murmur, I was fortunate enough to receive the Silent Slippers of Meditation. These were definitely an upgrade for me.. but at what cost? I spent days farming gold and primals to make my Shadow’s Embrace, only to give it up at the first blue that came along.

I could have had a flying mount by now!

So Hallow’s End is over. The trick or treating has unfortunately come to an end but plenty of delicious candy and other treats were looted. I was even able to PUG the Headless Horseman a few times and ended up obtaining some pretty decent loot for myself and MDW (my dear wife <3): The Horseman’s Signet Ring, Witching Band, and some sweet rides (unfortunately no helm or cosmetic pet dropped for me).

Yep, we’re still 5 levels away from even being able to equip this stuff, and from what I can tell, the quality of some of this ridiculously easy-to-obtain gear is roughly on par with Karahzan drops. Apparently this has caused some complaining and backlash on the official forums (surprise). Welfare Epics, as they’re commonly referred to, are threatening the e-peens of many a “hardcore” player. How are they supposed to continue being teh uber elite when Blizzard is literally handing out epics w/ candy?

Let me go off on a tangent for a sec.

Now I love me some purple loot just like the next person, but I don’t let its acquisition dominate my game play. I actually find myself playing to experience the content as opposed to striving to be king of the best-geared. I’ll only run a new dungeon once or twice per character and usually just to make sure I clear it and finish up all the quests.

See I’m also a completitionist, so I strive to achieve as much as possible. I know that this presents a sort of conundrum in that to experience every last bit of content, one will be required to dedicate a significant amount of effort towards gearing up. I’ve never been a member of a raiding guild and so there still remains a lot of content that I have regrettably had to skip over.

I don’t have anything against raiding or the guilds that do, I just want to avoid having my play experience mutate into an obligation. I’ve seen plenty of examples of people that have either completely burnt out on the game and/or had to quit because raiding had turned into a second job, On the flip-side, I’ve also got some good RL friends that enjoy raiding and what it has to offer.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

We have here a game that rewards time just as much as, if not more than skill. So what happens when you reduce the amount of effort that a given reward requires? Does that lessen the reward’s value? If you value something because it’s unique, then yeah, it’s not quite as appealing when everyone else has one. But when you get pissed off because someone else got an epic ring that didn’t require a 10-25-man group and weeks of clearing the same dungeons over and over then maybe you’re playing the wrong game.

PVP rewards are another hot-topic of debate. The arenas and battlegrounds put some nice loot within an otherwise-restricted reach. Someone may not have the time to dedicate all at once to obtaining the flashiest gear, but given enough time and perseverance, one can come out looking like a badass without ever having to step foot in a dungeon.

Patch 2.3 offers a plethora of changes that work toward making the game easier and more accessible by reducing the xp needed to level, dropping fatter loot from dungeon bosses, increasing xp rewards for quests, and even implementing new content for those lulls in your leveling career. But along with these changes comes a slew of complaints from high-brows that believe that all of their hard work is cheapened by making it easier for others to obtain.

I say get over it. I was one of the few that probably maxed out my cooking skill pre-BC, but you didn’t see me QQing when they implemented spice bread (an easy way for anyone to jump-start their cooking skill with minimal financial obligation). Fused Wiring used to make me tons of gold on the AH, but I was still happy when they released a schematic for it.

For those of you crazy devoted enough to grind out the rep needed for your Winterspring kitty-mount, it’s going to get easier for the rest of us. But at least you are old-school, one of the firsts–and in a game where most everything is a clone: from the servers, to the models, to the characters and the loot they wear, being first is really the only unique thing you can hope to accomplish.