Busting Down Kil'Jaeden's Door - 3.29.2008

Hawt diggedy dawg, we have a new patch! Writhe in irrevocable joy fellow WoW players; for new content is upon us! Servers are bustling to complete the endless stream of dailies to unlock the new features of Quel'Danas - I found a rather nifty progress page for Europeans (looks like there's an American version as well, fear not) and it all feels rather AQ gateish. Pardon my involuntary transformation of 'gate' into an adjective, but it sounds good dagnabbit!

Anyway, raiders have been bustling to kill bosses in the new 25 man instance, Sunwell Plateau. I can say from my own experience that the boss fights are very challenging and a welcoming breath of fresh air from Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. Oh wait, I mean Mount Badgel and Badge Temple - for the badges are also upon us! Everywhere you look mobs are dropping Badges of Justice like there's no tomorrow. I found one in my daily quest reward today as well, staring back at me like some grotesque blue child molester. These things are everywhere....

I'm wandering off the point somewhat, apologies. Heading back to the Sunwell, we can see a number of guilds have already half cleared the place; notably SK-Gaming, also known as Meet Your Makers, formerly known as Curse. If these guys sell out any more we're gonna have a hard time keeping track of them. Anyways, they managed to down the third boss within 5 hours of Sunwell being open. This doesn't mean the instance is easy, nor does it mean SK-Gaming is a bunch of spectacularly accomplished individuals who we should all offer to wash their cars with our testicles; it is worth noting that this guild also killed the first 3 bosses on the PTRs, so the boss fights weren't exactly new to them. However it is still a great achievement, so congratulations to them. With the gate openings now normalised across all servers the real test of prowess will surely be Kil'Jaeden himself, who no-one outside of Blizzard has tested. The first guild to down him will have proven themselves particularly skilled.

If anyone wants an actual accurate list of who's killed what when in EU and US, SK-Gaming's list is by far the most accurate list to date; various other sites are not reliable at the current time.

I would also like to point out at this time, with a certain air of snobbery and foolish pride, that EU guilds have consistently beaten US guilds to the kills even though you Yanks had the headstart. Both SK-Gaming and Inner Sanctum cleared the instance on the first day they had it available to raid, whilst US guilds dawdled, possibly searching for the mystical Ben & Jerry's Melted Fried Mars Bar ice cream that was rumoured to be hiding within the depths of the Sunwell, mmmm... Actually I think I'd dawdle if that ice cream came into view, sounds digustingly delicious.

But enough of my patriotism or Europeatism (today truly is a good day to be making up words). I do hope you are all enjoying the new features of the patch, and scurrying about like little beavers to complete the phases and open up that armory because I want my Epic Gems! Ya know? :)

-Joe Zara [Phoee]