Finnish Brute Force didn't raid before The Burning Crusade, so we never had the chance to experience the thrill of a first-time Nefarian kill together. Now, thanks to Blizzard's lack of imagination love for old content, and Nef's and Onyxia's ability to survive beheadings, we do! The siblings had learned from their previous defeats and joined forces, although not everyone was sure why Nef was trying to drown his dear sister in lava when we entered the room. Those of us with a sibling can probably relate, I know I can <3.

The admittedly epic battle took place in a pit that was clearly meant to be a new PvP arena in Cata, but I guess after the "success" of Ring of Valor the developers thought it would be best to keep the fires and lava in PvE dungeons, no matter how fun it would be to scorch your enemies with well-timed kidney shots.

As the descending magma exposed a familiar face we saw our chance and jumped right in! Onyxia was literally shocked to see a bunch of epic-hungry wackos charging at her once again, but not as shocked as we were when we realised she doesn't have any loot left. So, to the next dragon we ran!

Visibly worried about the purple glow in our eyes, Nef flew up in the air and filled the arena with lava again! Fortunately he was kind enough to leave some pillars as safe spots for us. Well, safe until he started to bombard us with firebolts and called some nasty friends to join the party. Try to figure this guy out. "You're hot and you're cold, you're dead then you're not"...

Things got tight on the small platforms, but no one slipped or accidentally kicked any gnomes into the lava, so we made it to the final phase. The rest of the fight went beautifully, just like the whole kill. Smooth add control and healers healing their asses off (no one died!). Add impressive dps and you've got two dead dragons.

Wait...Onyxia's corpse was nowhere to be seen! So remember, the Blackwing Descent might be merely a setback...

Until then, heroics! Yay!

Nefarian

Crul'korak, the Lightning's Arc (Fárek)
Akmin-Kurai, Dominion's Shield (Zende, Marcius)
Shadow of Dread (Iipee)
Helm of the Forlorn Conqueror (Ligur, Odeliini, Iipee)

The National Weather Service of Azeroth has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Throne of the Four Winds region in southwestern Uldum until 10 pm Central Server Time. At 5:30 pm, the National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated the forming of a severe thunderstorm capable of epic-scale hail. The storm is currently holding still over the region. This is a dangerous storm. If you are in the warned area, prepare immediately for extreme hail, harsh wind conditions and ground lightning. Repeating, a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued until 10 pm Central Server Time for the following regions: Throne of the Four Winds in southwestern Uldum.

Avid stormchasers that we are, the brave team of FBF headed out immediately to ensure the safety and property integrity of the warned area. Much to our surprise, the forming thunderstorm was not the result of global warming or other expected phenomena. Instead, arriving at the general region we found a completely deranged Djinn orchestrating the storm. Luckily, our disappointment for the lack of an epic thunderstorm of the century was slightly alleviated by the possessions that the Djinn was (somewhat reluctantly, though) willing to relinquish.

Al'Akir

Star Chaser Legguards (Belnazar)
Lightning Well Legguards (Eidia)

Here in FBF we are loving and caring people. Indeed we adore cuddly little kittens, owlings, bears, wolfmen and gnomes. Nevertheless even we accept the fact that when a pet bites the master it must be put down.

With utmost regret we inform that Chimaeron had to relocate to a ranch in Mulgore. There on those greener pastures he makes countless new friends and can play all day.

And no, Timmy, you can't visit him.

Chimaeron

Massacre Treads (Itza, Ligur)
Chaos Beast Bracers (Belnazar, Eidia)
Pip's Solution Agitator (Odeliini)

As much as we would've wanted to go play with our brand new armadillos, this huge, half-naked guy with two heads and extra eyes just looked too disturbing to be left alive.

The tricks of the Twilight Council had messed up our heads, but we quickly remembered that standing in suspicious ground effects is not usually good for your health and average item level. Cho'gall went down, and with oily hands we reached under his loincloth to find a mighty mace. Err... Oh yeah, and another damn belt.

Cho'gall

Coil of Ten-Thousand Screams Preda)
Battleplate of the Apocalypse Marcius)
Hands of the Twilight Council (Haidi)
Kilt of the Forgotten Battle (Eidia)
Twilight's Hammer (Alfenster)
Mantle of the Forlorn Conqueror (Zende)
Mantle of the Forlorn Vanquisher (Gramno, Fagina)

Up high! To the ground! Orbs, flame, lightning, water pools and shared health pool. The ability potpourri also known as Twilight Ascendant Council was broken down phase by phase. After gathering himself together, the monstrosity was broken down again.

And even then, all the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put the Elemental Monstrosity back together again.

Ascendant Council

Dispersing Belt (Sorbus)
Arion's Crown (Illyria)
Feludius' Mantle (Belnazar, Eidia)
Gravitational Pull (Marcius)

When facing a big old burning dragon who happens to be a little bit visually impaired, or in other words, blind as a frikkin' bat, you might feel sort of... overpowered. Naturally it was only fair to level the playing field. Thus everyone played blind-folded (or gouged their eyes out - player's choice)! The whole term "faceroll" got a whole new meaning as the wee and large lads and ladies of Finnish Brute Force mashed their hands and faces on their keyboards in an attempt to bring Atramedes down.

And down he went. The magical trick was using the HUEG MALLET which you hit them gongs with... on Atramedes. And it took us hours to figure that out. For shame!! Fortunately Loots of the epic kind soothed our minds.

Atramedes

Ironstar Amulet (Marcius)
Legguards of the Unseeing (Marcius)
Bracers of the Burningeye (Odeliini)
Bell of Enraging Resonance (Odeliini)
Battleplate of Ancient Kings (Ligur)

I find the effort of writing the names down of all the bosses we down during our progress raids rather tedious. That's why I'm not even going to tell you which bosses we downed! Check out the cool pictures (and their headers for eazymodez) and try guessing yourself!

Maloriak

Cloak of Biting Chill (Antlion)
Belt of Arcane Storms (Odeliini)
Flash Freeze Gauntlets (Whitefoxbank)

There were some twin drakes, a bunch of djinns or somesuches and a kinda birdlike something that we oneshotted. Eazies! Anyways, they're all dead now and we have moar purplz! Now I can afford that spelling teacher and start writing propah "Kings English" instead of this l33twow-stuff.

Valiona & Theralion

Valiona's Medallion (Odeliini)
Drape of the Twins (Cerebear, Belnazar)
Dragonheart Piercer (Tipetsu, Sticker)

Conclave of Wind

Tempest Keeper Belt (Iipee)
Planetary Band (Ruiti)
Sky Strider Belt (Itza)

Finally some 25mans! I mean no one really cares about the 10man versions. Right? If I soloed heroic 10man BoT with my lvl20 worgen everyone would be like "Hunh? So?" Anyways, after we finally got enough peeps to 25man the 10man crowd had to switch to the RealMen raids. A few hours later a BIG GIANT HE... worm was dead. Singing with him in the choir was a huge mechanical monstrosity just doing the bassline with a catchy "om nom nom nom" tune.

Magmaw

Akirus the Worm-Breaker (Ligur)
Flame Pillar Leggings (Odeliini, Gramno)
Parasitic Bands (Feanoris, Sorbus)

Omnotron Defense System

Lightning Conductor Band (Preda, Sticker)
Organic Lifeform Inverter (Farek)
Security Measure Alpha (Cerebear)
Life Force Chargers (Iipee)

The lead vocals were provided by Halfus Wyrmbreaker who we effectively broke after the dps simultaniously mashed their heads on the keyboard with perfect syncronicity. At this point the tanks and healers woke up and ninjaed all the lewts. Good times!!

Halfus Wyrmbreaker

Pauldrons of the Great Ettin (Itza, Iipee)
Bracers of Impossible Strength (Iipee)
Bracers of the Bronze Flight (Thysthere)
Legguards of the Emerald Brood (Alfenster)

Indeed, it was a very interesting hour around 01:00 - 02:00 (finnish time) as probably hundreds of thousands of players tried to login at the same time. Some got in, some didn't and proceeded to kill small animals (no real animals were hurt during the login process). Good thing however that we were inside since it was like 20 degrees celsius below zero outside. The utter madness in the suddenly crowd filled world lasted for a few days and finally settled down as people started dinging to the new max level.

The fastest bugger in the race to 85 was Protonai who got the honors for being the first guy complaining on the guild chat why nobody wanted to do heroics yet. In addition we managed to grab two realm firsts. Cerebear managed to swipe the Realm First Fishing and Ruiti grabbed the Realm First Inscription. Congrats to both!

Now it's time to gear up and run some heroics. Soon we'll be tackling the 25man content with full gusto and epic pwnage!

The world is changing and Azeroth has broken. So it was quite logical for us to go and lay Arthas to rest for the last time. Heroically. We were 15 guys short though so only 10 FBF crazies went /rude on the Lich Kings ass. After about two hours of defile dodging and shield spamming, Arthas was downed for the last time. 10 FBF raiders got themselves a nifty long title and a very nice ending to the expansion.

We were prepared. The story of Arthas has been Brute Forced and we head back to Azeroth picking up the pieces of the Cataclysm.

It's been fun! Time to have some more fun :-)

Lich King 10 HC