Our Guild: Heroic The Nexus

In a small guild every victory is a big achievement. Some guilds may have hundreds of people with multiple raid groups sitting around twiddling their thumbs till 3.1 and Ulduar go live. Smaller guilds on the other hand are working our way through heroics, growing our number, and looking forward to bigger and better things. The latest victory for our small band of WoW addicts was finishing our first heroic, The Nexus!

The weekend had come and it was time for us to give a shot at another heroic. After our partial success in Heroic Utgarde, and Halls of Lighting, our spirits were high. We were tired of not get the full satisfaction of seeing that purple loot fall of a final boss and we wanted it badly. This was our time! There was no stopping us now!
After all the buffs found their way to us all, we headed to down the hallway towards the boss we always downed first in The Nexus, Grand Magus Telestra. Dragonkin, magic users, and mage hunting hounds, fell before us as we made our way to a room that we had seen a number of times before. Members of the Horde frozen in blocks of ice stood in our way and as usual we began to happily send them falling to the floor. Quickly searching their lifeless bodies we moved on to the next group, not noticing our mistake until it was too late.

As he ran to us, clerics in tow and his monstrous, two-handed axe in hand, Dark, the tank planted her feet and braced for impact. The sounds of the battle filled the hallway, all was well until he thrust his axe out and began to spin. Whirlwind?! These guys don't whirlwind.... wait a minute he is a boss! Pek, the rogue, fell dead on the floor as the impact of a single blow from Commander Kolurg's blade made short work of his leather armor. Despite a valiant effort, we all eventually met the same fate as Pek. It was a lesson learned and that lesson was, PAY ATTENTION! We tried twice more to do away with the Commander, before deciding let him have his hallway for now. We turned back, heading to the opposite end of the instance and set our sights on Ormorok the Tree-Shaper.

The corridor leading to Ormorok was filled with all manner of walking vegetation. We had seen it all before and began to clear a path through the pesky, root legged flowers and trees ranging from large to gigantic. Their attempt at keeping us from our goal failed and we now stood in front of the rock giant himself. After explaining the strategy to refresh everyone's memory and to mention the small additions to the fight on Heroic, Dark charged in. Pek followed closely, while Bby, Dagreatwhite and I took positions around the boss' platform. His fists of solid stone took out his anger on Dark as Pek steadily chipped away at him from behind. Bolts of magic, pet claws and arrows joined in the assault as I unleashed a flurry of heals. The ground made a familiar rumble as it churned, eventually giving way to spikes of ice, sending those of us who weren't quick enough to avoid them, flying into the air. The damage was too much and once again we were treated to a close up view of the intricate floor designs.

After a short discussion and a change of strategy, we went at him again. This time we used his size to our advantage, staying underneath him so that his spikes would not be able to reach most of us. Dagreatwhite would have to stay at range and be on his toes, but since he had to stand on his toes to see over the spikes anyway, it all worked out. A few moments later Ormorok, was being shipped off in pieces to Dalaran to make some fine granite counter tops and we were headed to the next item on the agenda, Anomalus, but not before Bby picked up the Gloves of The Crystal Gardener

The next few minutes were filled with chaotic rifts, many different arcane menaces, more dragonkin, and as a treat for those of us with mana pools, a plethora of loose mana. Apart from a mistake or two, all went smoothly and we had reached or next stop on The Nexus tour.

Anomalus stood there towering above us, beckoning, no daring us to step just a little closer so he could get five more bodies towards meeting his quota and keeping his Northrend Bosses Union card. Wasting no time we buffed and gave him what he asked for. The rifts he summoned proved to be too much for just the dps we assigned to them and they overwhelmed us and we joined his body count. Our second attempt was more cautious and the rifts where taken care of before they could build in number and Anomalus met his end, leaving behind the Helm of Anomalus and adding to our Emblem of Heroism stack.

Trash, trash and more trash, littered the path to our original first target, Grand Magus Telestra. A few more Dragonkin and then many of Telestra's students were among the dead and looted bodies that we left in our wake. When the final group of her faithful followers was dealt with, there was nothing left to keep us from ripping her to shreds. She put up quite a fight splitting into her three clones twice, even tossing us around her room two or three times, but it was all a waste of her mana. When it was all said and done, she gave up her Spaulders of the Careless Thief for Pek and we made our way to the big bad dragon, Keristrasza.

The Commander and a few of his men still stood in the hallway that would have been a more direct path to the dragon. Wanting to save him for last, we went back the way we came. The dragon was in sight as cleared a group of mobs, finished the dragonkin that were in her room and prepared for the fight. We decided that her time was going to run out very soon and clicked the orbs to release her. The temperature dropped instantly and we were forced to move continuously to battle the intense cold, taking very little time between movements to throw whatever we could at her. No matter what the dragon tried we were bound and determined that the fight would end with us standing over her and taking the treasures she held. Near the end, she became enraged and began to tear at Dark viciously, but even that wouldn't save her from her fate. Dagreatwhite walked away with the Interwoven Scale Bracers and a Frozen Orb and I picked up a new shield for when I might be called on to tank. The excited laughs and cheers echoed off the walls as we ran to meet our final challenge, Commander Kolurg.

Standing at the entrance to the hallway once again, we stared down the enemy who had sent us to the graveyard three times already. This time however, he would have to face us with the taste of victory making our mouths water for more. Without wasting anytime, the charge was sounded and the encounter begin. This time the whirlwind did not take Pek from us, but his fear sent him running, causing 3 adds to aggro and head our way. Just at the point of panic the adds overtook Pek and then not seeing us they ran back to their posts. Pek's death only strengthened or resolve and few moments later the Commander went down, followed shortly by his clerics. Our fallen comrade avenged, I picked up another piece of tanking gear Cloak of the Enemy and we all picked up our first complete Heroic run. Congrats to all who participated and never gave up. Next will be Utgarde Keep, because we have a bone to pick with old Ingvar. Until then, have fun!