Our Guild: Heroic Utgarde Keep

Before I write about the instance itself, let me give you all some background on the guild.

Big Kids at Play was started last year to make communication easier between us and the real life family members who play with us on our realm, Malygos. We did many Outlands instances with only the 4 of us pre-Wrath and just as Wrath was releasing we were joined by our old friend from the Horde side of Azeroth. He rolled a hunter named Dagreatwhite and we all have since leveled to 80.

We are now trying to gear up and recruit so that we can experience 10-man and eventually 25-man content in Wrath. Our main goal in recruiting though, is to have more people to have fun with in game. We have attempted Heroic Gundrak and Violet Hold, both of which didn't go so well. After that we decided it would be best to start with an instance we had some experience with.

The Love is in the Air event was coming to an end and we were in Utgarde Keep just to kill Prince Keleseth for Bouquet of Ebon Roses so that Bby and Pek could get their Fool For Love Achievement. When all of a sudden I had a moment of clarity, or insanity depending on who you ask.

Four of us were on and then as if he just knew, on logs the Dagreatwhite! I key up in Vent and immediately say "Hey get to Valgarde we are running Heroic Utgarde Keep". I will not post his response here because I would like to keep the blog clean. A few minutes later we finished getting the roses, exited, reset the instance, set it to heroic mode and went back in.

The trash mobs offered no trouble at all. We cleared them rather quickly and cleanly as we headed towards Keleseth. The last four trash mobs in his room were dispatched quickly and then it was time for what we hoped would be our first heroic boss kill. I guess our first attempts at heroics had left us a bit on the nervous side, or even somewhat doubtful of our abilities and the first attempt didn't go so well. We got him down to about 20% or so but the frost tombs were trouble as we were too spread out. Our second attempt ended with the Prince going down a second or so after our tank died, but it was still a victory! Bby picked up Wand of San'layn and everyone else grabbed their first Emblem of Heroism and an achievement.

We dusted ourselves off and continued to clear trash as Dark (my wife) reminded me of the time and that we had to work in the morning, but when asked if she wanted to quit her response was a big no. We continued to pull trash and make our way to Skarvald the Constructor and is little friend Dalronn the Controller. A few zombies and other undead creatures later we where standing there looking them and foaming at the mouth for another taste victory.

The strategy discussion was kept short by or need to redeem ourselves from our past heroic encounters. The tank went in and our first attempt was close, but a lack healing myself ended it prematurely. We ran back, rebuffed and went quickly at them again. They didn't stand a chance as everyone was on their game. After they were both laying in a pile together, I took the loot Helmet of the Constructor and was politely reminded of the time and that deciding to do an instance this late on a work night again would result in bodily harm, we continued.

More Vrykul tasted titansteel, were turned into penguins, pierced by arrows, and felt the blades of the unseen behind them, as we made our way outside to the final boss Ingvar the Plunderer. He stood there calling out orders as we decided the best way to plan his demise. We attempted 3 times to take him down, but after he was ressurected we just couldn't finish him off. The late hour didn't help and we still need to work on the coordination, but soon he will fall and we will take the epic loot he has to give and move on towards bigger and better things. Great job guildies!

In closing I would just like to say that there are many people out there that believe that the content in Wrath is too easy and for some it may be true. As for those of us who do not have the time to run instances and raid often and who have newer players in our guilds, I believe it is just right. Good job Blizzard and keep up the good work that makes us come back for more. Until next time have fun!