Long-time readers can probably guess what this post is gonna be about. Newer readers, let me introduce you to a little raid called Karazhan:
Let’s start from the beginning: entering this place. Let’s see if I can properly do this justice.
You hit 70. You do a bunch of regular instances. You get all your rep up to Honored (or, for a little while, Revered) by doing said normal instances. You try a heroic but it kicks your butt so you do more regular instances for a while. Then you finally start doing heroics.
And then you start to think about Karazhan.
The questline for the Karazhan key– which at one point, everyone in the raid needed to have to get in– sent you flying all over the place, solving puzzles and mysteries about this mystical tower.
Then you have to do an instance. Shadow Labs. Not a huge deal, everyone is doing this instance.
Then you have to do a second instance. Steamvaults. A slightly more irritating instance (for me anyway), but still not bad.
Then you have to do a third instance, called Arcatraz. The catch is that you have to be keyed for Arcatraz, and to do so, you have to complete two other instances: Botanica and the Mechanar.
Done yet? Oh no. Then you get to go do Black Morass. Meaning you get to go back in time and help Medivh do bad things, like let the orcs into Azeroth.
Then, and only then, do you get the key.
Oh, and what an adventure awaits you then, and what further quests, because that’s right, the quests don’t stop with the key. They send you into the tower, and then they send you in again, and again, and again. They’re there to help you get keyed for the later dungeons and get you your Violet Eye rep ring, but in my mind, they were fantastically interesting in their own right.
Everything about this place is magical. Not only are the aesthetics and design beautiful, but the bosses are, as well. An undead horseman. A castellan entertaining his dinner guests, just a bit miffed that you barged in unannounced. An opera, featuring three completely boss fights of which one was chosen at random each time you did it. A chess game wherein you took control of the pieces. The ghost of Medivh’s own father, mad with grief and guilt. A giant arcane guardian, reminding you in painful fashion that you are not where you should be. And these are just a few.
And the fight mechanics themselves were, in my mind, unparalleled. I hadn’t seen any of this stuff before, and most of it I haven’t seen since. Moroes involved an ungodly amount of crowd control; priests shackling and hunters trapping, gloriously trapping.
Curator, a gear check if there ever was one, and the source of more in-jokes with my longtime WoW friends than pretty much anything else in the game.
No, really:
Shade of Aran was, without question, my favorite boss in the instance. Explaining it to somebody who had never done it before was always hilarious, because it took so freaking long and you knew the new person probably wasn’t going to live anyway. Flame Wreath jokes abounded, and the ceremonial “Playing of the Chant over Ventrilo” before the fight was held sacrosanct.
Prince Malchezaar, that infuriating fight that liked to drop infernals on your head, and quite arguably one of the most difficult raid bosses I’ve ever bumped up against for an appropriately geared group. Oh gosh. I remember the first time my guild downed him. At the end of the fight one person was still alive: the tank. We had a priest in Spirit of Redemption form, and the tank. That was it.
Sadly this promptly turned into massive quantities of loot drama and QQ regarding the T4 helm, but we won’t speak of that.
Have I mentioned though that Prince is still fiendishly difficult at 80 sometimes? Sheesh.
And chess, good ol’ chess, the one fight that actually gets harder as time goes on because you tend to bring fewer people into Kara these days so you have fewer people controlling the pieces. Chess, which once pooped me out into Curator’s room after the piece I was controlling died, and since I was the loot master and didn’t get back in time we couldn’t loot the chest. Everyone had their loot a few days of GM tag later, including a new pair of boots for me.
And the best part is that somehow, the magic of that place hasn’t disappeared. Oh supposedly Medivh sucked it all up at the end of “The Last Guardian” and all that’s left are specters of the past and some other bizarre creatures. I call shenanigans on this. Because somehow after all this time I go in there and Karazhan is just as magical as it was the first time. The mere music makes me teary-eyed.
A few of my sisters, who have actually played WoW for longer than I have, but considerably more casually, recently transferred servers to Silver Hand; one of the things that I think enticed them over the most was my promise of “I’LL TAKE YOU TO KARAZHAN. I WILL SO TAKE YOU TO KARAZHAN.” because they had never been. And the other day I did just that; took one of my sisters (the other isn’t quite a high enough level yet) through the entire place with the help of some buddies. She made out like a loot bandit, since she’s sitting at level 70 but WotLK-less, but even better, she got to go on a tour of My WoW Happy Place. (And no, Attumen didn’t drop it.)
(Yes, she’s in a guild called < Tawyn's Pet >. No, it was not my idea. I swear. Why are you looking at me like that??)
And after all this time, even when I am in my temporarly Tree disguise rather than my hunter one, I still stand by my man:
My oldest group of friends in WoW is about five- or six- people strong and we all met in some random Zul’farrak run a long time ago when we were all level 40ish. Burning Crusade was our fifteen minutes in the sun and Karazhan was our peak. Some of us have stopped playing WoW, or play it much less, but we all keep in touch outside of the game, and the near-mythical status that one raid– just one raid– has reached within our little group is undeniable. Scarcely a group AIM chat goes by where someone doesn’t bring it up, and one of my friends has started posting a weekly Karazhan “comic” (more like a graphic novel, really) starring our characters on a forum that we frequent; it’s quite amazing so far and has me awaiting each Friday the way a kid would await getting his comic books in the mail.
There are other really good raids.
But there is only one Karazhan.
P.S. What was your personal “ZOMGAWESOME” raid or instance? Comment about it here or post about it on your own blog– I’d love to hear! ^_^
My personal ZOMGAWESOME raid? No contest! Karazhan, DUH.
Honestly, even when we were in BT/SWP, we still ran through Kara weekly on our alts because it was just *that fun*. Naxx has NOTHING on Kara, baby. *huggles Kara tightly*
Believe it or not, my ZOMG instance was actually Karazahn for the raids as well.
But it wasn’t my favourite instance.
My favourite instance is still, to this day, the Mana Tombs/Shadow Labs. Between all the fun CC and the Lore, Muru, and badguys that EXPLODE INTO DUST WHEN I SHOOT THEM, I had a lot of fun in those instances.
The one I remember most is probably AQ40, and weeks spent beating against the twin emperors. But the feeling of joy and satisfaction when we finally downed them was amazing! I quit wow for a bit not long after, and didn’t come back until well into BC. I levelled hard to do Kara and ZA and all those, and loved them to death, but they never had the same place in my heart that AQ40 did.
Amusingly, I did AQ40 on Silver Hand as well! I was part of one of the groups who rang the gong there, for the Leftovers neutral raid alliance. When I came back from my break, I moved to my current home on Nagrand to be with other Aussies, but I will never forget my friends in and on SH!
I haven’t really been in many raids to be honest, not at level anyway. My Hunter, Sevei, went into Kara at like lvl 76 and omg, the atmosphere. It is so freakin’ awesome 🙂
Well, Ima gonna have to think about this and blog my thoughts on it, but right here and now I have to give props to the Big K as well. What an awesome, beautiful place to raid! Even more fun – the trash could actually wipe the party! ONOZ!
Thanks for waking the memories 🙂
Well, I made a post about this not that long ago: it’s Zul’Aman for me. I just loved the atmosphere and the timed run was so damned hard. It was a thing of absolute beauty when we first mastered it and none of the other groups in my guild that tried ever pulled it off. The resulting sense of camaraderie in the group was just amazing. I still have a picture of all our characters celebrating the first successful bear run as my desktop background.
Kara wasn’t bad either though. 😉
Definately still Kara – it’s where I started raiding and even though we went there a LOT during tbc I’ll never forget the feeling after taking down each boss for the first time 🙂
Have to agree with you – Karazhan all the way (for raids)
for 5 Mans (slightly off topic i know but indulge me) – Deadmines – I roll new characters just to go through that place again (and again, and again lol).
Oh Pike, this is wonderful and I’m so envious!
My first ever raiding experience was Karazhan and it still brings back heady memories of people getting screamed at for moving in flamewreath, beam juggling on big blue dragon and the sense of awe when we finally dropped the Curator for the first time. The joy of opera and the awesomeness of chess, coupled with the DPS group homing meteors that were attached toe Prince Malchezzar. I stopped playing before we progressed to 25mans and have since come back and run Naxx, VoA and OS yet nothing makes me feel all warm and fuzzy like Kara. Good times.
Kara is the instance that made me the meter topping, raid leading monster of a hunter I am today.
I rolled in there doing 400 dps (god I was bad) and came out a raider. I just wish rhe fresh 80s today had a similar instance, but with the badge changes and easy of heroics Naxx just doesn’t do it.
My guildies still.tell Kara stories as well, usually embarrising ones about me and raid leading. Ah the good times.
I have to give the nod to AQ40 over Kara – having done it at level, it’s one of the most terrifyingly thrilling things ever.
But yes, Kara is far and away the best raid of TBC. 🙂
I’m a huge huge fan of Arcatraz :/ the instance it self is pretty fun, but the flavor of it…ooooh the flavor. you are going into a jail, knowing that its defenses are failing, that its occupants are stirring instead of sitting snug inside their cells. you are going in to bring the order back, to find out why are the monsters going loose, and to fix it. you find bickering spouses, dead guardians that are not really dead, you find demons, enterprising Ethereals who are stealthily taking advantage of weakened defenses. And then…then.. you meet one of the old gods, who corrupted the weaker mind of the prison’s newest warden.
and
you meet
Millhouse Manastorm
I confess, I’m not a big fan of gones as a race. I can see the appeal of pink pigtails, but in general….not a big fan, sorry. but Millhouse? Millhouse is one of my favorite WoW characters of all time. I’ve been to Arcatraz many a time, both During BC (even had someone try to kick me out once, for some reason they decided that being a blood elf hunter, I must be the weakest link and surely they would prefer a tauren shaman over me, even though at that point we were half way through the instance and I just happened to be topping the damage meters /deep breath) Millhouse and his mannerisms? they never get old 😛
I used to have a favourite Kara spiel that I would sometimes give over vent – especially if there were people new to Kara in the raid. From memory it used to go something like (in a droll tone of voice):
Welcome to another Karazhan Occupational Health and Safety Advisory. Please be advised that not all of the stairways and bridges within Karazhan have safety railings. Management has been advised of this matter but continue to fail to comply with the issued infringement notices. You are advised to stay well clear of any precipitous edges and to please at all times pay close attention to your surroundings as falling from the endless stairway may be hazardous to your health. Additionally in some places the railings are incomplete and falling through a gap between railings can be both damaging to your health and your ego. Thank-you for your attention for this important safety announcement. Please enjoy your stay in Karazhan.
This one was also often delivered right after the Guild Mistress had fallen from the bridge right outside Aran’s room to the floor of the library (ouch!). Usually had everyone laughing 😉
Still my favourite raid 😉
Ya know, I feel a little like I missed out with Kara. I farmed the buttcrap out of it, completely, through the whole of TBC, but never focused on it as a main raid, the main raids were always TK/SSC and above for me in TBC, which sucks a little, because Kara was very well designed.
Maggy after a few wipes when it went down always felt damn good.
Ulduar was also very well designed.
But, I think I’ll say BT, some of the best times in WoW I had were progressing through BT with my main TBC guild, and it was well designed and fun, slightly difficult but do able.. A strange part of me loved the big face guy, forgot his name now, but it required so much focus, as a shadow priest I needed to use VE for the healing, but I needed to not because we were one of the only classes who couldn’t drop our threat, and we couldn’t use SWD. Progress was nice. These days, raids are pretty much “here enjoy your loot pinata and don’t stand in the fire” in comparison 🙁
The quest chain to get into Kara (and through Kara to get your Ash pot) had an incredible feel and flavor that I haven’t seen since. The BT attunement was a nice chain as well, but really lacked the single minded focus present in Kara’s.
Also, Medivh reaching into his pocket and giving you his key in Black Morass still gives me chills.
However my favorite raid instance in TBC just for the raid content was probably Mount Hyjal. The waves of undead and burning legion were cool, each slightly different, the boss fights were a lot of fun, and getting to fight bosses alongside Jaina and Thrall were just awesome. In Wrath, we pair up with major NPCs repeatedly on some of the simplest quests, and of course the post-Wrathgate Undercity event. But before those, it was Hyjal, once a week, for 4 months. Good times.
@Jaedia – Reliquary of Souls. Awesome fight /nod.
I must give the nod to kara as well, I played pre-bc but did not raid, always tended to suffer from alt-itis and never get up to the level cap till i sent a toon to join I capped and attuned and started raiding. We were adequate on the front half, but the back side was killing us. I remember the first time that little light bulb went on while attacking shade. we had wiped countless times, (literally lost count) then one of my friends popped in that happened to be a warlock, I convinced the run that for the good of our sanity we must include a warlock..
down the next attempt.
My favorite fight of all time has to be Dorothy…. with BBW coming in close second. nothing funnier than seeing a bear tank turn into a little gnome girl.
I liked last year’s optional boss that was added during hallows end. (i have the batling)
When i later switched to another guild that was a better fit for me, I got into some of the 25man content, SSC mainly. poked my antlers into black temple once or twice.
Gotta love Kara, ZA holds a special place in my heart tho…just love those damn troll voices^_^ still opera was always fun (RUN AWAY LITTLE GIRL :D)
I don’t even know where to start with this I’ve been playing since pre BC(I’m a nerd I know). I would have to say myall time favriote instance is sunwell platau(I suck at spelling sue me >.>) the lore that surrounds the place leaves me speechless everytime I see it. It’s also the only place that makes me go back and play WC3 again. Although I love the place Its where my hatred of warriors comes from. The raid was told to pass on the bow so I could get it(yay for being only hunter) i needed on it and so did our very overgeared warrior. Needless to say he gquit and transfered off server. Even after all if that though Sunwell is my favriote instance of all time.
If I had to pick one and only one I’d say Molten Core for the sheer sillyness we would have doing the run. The place had so much trash mobs involved that to pass time we started singing and making bad jokes contests. We even had an official soundtrack for MC, starting first with Johny Cash “Ring of Fire”, with the MC raider song at Baron geddon and finishing with bloodhound gang “the roof is on fire” while on Ragnaros.I guess it was mostly user created content but so much fun… miss those days
I have to say that I love Kara. I dropped everything on Saturday night just to be able to run it on my 74 paladin alt because my guild was having a old school raid fest. =D
I do have to say though that what I have seen of Black Temple may make that my second favorite, at least on my hunter.
Kara was where I first stared raiding and it continues be a special place for me.
Naxx didn’t do it, but then it was recycled and the graphics and bosses were old. I imagine when it first came out as Naxx 40 the raid was amazing, but in Wrath it was not.
Ah Kara. My very first raid, so it’ll always be special. Fun as hell, and where I learned how to chain trap properly (keeping the arms warrior on the Moroes fight locked up pretty much indefinitely was my specialty. I wonder if I could have kept him trapped through the entire instance…) My rogue is at level 64 how and I wonder if I’ll be able to get her into there just once before I move on to Northrend.
My favorite fights:
Shade of Aran-“FLAME WREATH! NOBODY MOVE!” I used to love hearing that on vent even though the thought behind it was slightly wrong.
Moroes-Chain trapping the adds was fun. Hella fun.
Chess-IIRC, the very first ‘vehicle boss fight’ introduced in WoW.
Opera-Except Big, Bad Wolf. I’ve won quite a bit of gold wagering on what event it would be but I still hate BBW for NEVER dropping the Wolfslayer.
Prince-My very first epic bow, which I used all the way until Sholazar. Plus, Prince’s voice was just awesome. “You face not Malchezzar alone, but the very legions I command!”
Kara all the way twas my first raid and still my favorite raid for fun. as a human warlock the place gripped me from attumen all the way to Malchezaar
my personal favorite fight though was Terestian Illhoof as a lock i would spam massive SOC and have a dedicated healer on me for CC this is the only boss i am aware of where a warlock is more useful than a main tank after illhoof i would clear the dmg charts all the way to Malchezaar
I’m afraid that i’ll be stoned to death with this comment. But someone had to do it.
I’ve never done most of Outland Instances, did Black Temple a couple of months ago and after an hour we were done. So i fail to understand the appeal of old instances. And no i’ve never set foot on Kara and probably never will.
My vote for best raid lays obviously in Ulduar.
I’ll have to think about the idea of my fav dungeon and get back to ya in my blog
Thank you for this trip down Memory Lane. It was eloquently written. 🙂
@Kotamundus: Those dang railings. There’s a Velaska Memorial railing in there. Named for when my mage side stepped into the railing … that wasn’t there. I found my slow button approximately 0.001 seconds *after* landing below.
Blackrock Mountain.
Kara comes a close second but nothing says epic like a raid that encompasses a whole city, bar and everything, with another raid behind the first one. Though MC could do without the copious amounts of trash.
Then you take on the spire dredging through the bottom for key parts and various goodies only to have to go up top and face the whelp pit and various other events.
Once through there you go on to face a Black Dragon in BWL and his assorted lackeys. It might not be in vogue these days but the whole area was epic in it’s day. The fact that 5 instances were crammed into one mountain was just gargantuan.
Best. Post. Ever.
Hands down.
The harpsichord music makes me nostalgic every time I even THINK about it, nevermind hear it.
I don’t think that I had a raid that was truly epic on the scale that Kara was epic for your group. I loved Kara of course, don’t get me wrong – it was the first raid that I stepped foot in to and so my first anything with more than four other people… It was big and bad and awesome.
But besides it, I may have to say Mechanar might be pretty awesome in my book. For some reason (not entirely sure why even now) when Lus and I were both playing our rogues, we were friends with a tank/healer combo and we ran Mech a ton. A TON. And I had a great time every time we went.
ah karazhan. it had good times, it had bad times. i loved the quest chain to get your key, and later the urn to summon nightbane. each new boss fight was exciting in learning the mechanics. and it’s funny b/c i have like most of the gear i got from kara in my bank, along with the urn.
then my guild got it on farm status and all the fun left. i ran it so much that for a while i knew all of aran’s attacks just from what he was said and didn’t have to pay attention to the raid warnings. >_<
I remember good ‘ol KZ, dying and getting lost on the way back. Aah.
Anyways, though all those nostalgic memories are great nothing compares to Ulduar in awesomeness. The first time going in there with the tanks and having no idea what was going on until the first Yogg kill (which was probably the best wow moment I’ve felt). The lore behind it just finished it off (after having leveled 73-75 in Grizz Hills I saw my fair share of Yogg-Saron whispers).
Kara for me too. No doubt about it.
I love the Big Bad Wolf. I love that DBM has immortalised him!
No raid since has been the balance of challenge and fun that Kara was throughout its lifespan. I remember when Aran was a brick wall.
And when people used to wonder what was behind the bookcase while you were getting ready for Aran. And wander on down to take a look… and wipe the raid by pulling Illy. It was known as ‘doing a Darth’ in my guild at the time, after the warlock who sent his eye down there to take a peek.
Blackwing Lair.
It had the same “you must be this tall to ride” requirements, which means that a lot of people never saw it, but it was awesome. The first freaking boss was a guild-breaker, followed by the ultra-mega guild-breaker, and then the suppression room was the super-mega-mega-ultra-guildbreaker. Now that I’m saying it, I have no idea why that is awesome, but it is.
When you got brought into a BWL raid, it was a “you like me, you really like me!” moment. And if you could get past the first three bosses, you were home free. Until you get to Nef, and then all the Ony runs you did before having your Ony cloak betowed upon you come to fruition. And then, this priest could do what he always wanted to do… wait for the priest call, and then start popping renews on all the effing rogues. (And this was way, WAY before Cloak of Shadows.)
I think Ulduar could have been the best raid instance ever. I love the lore behind it–ties-in to quests throughout Northrend, continuation of the Titans storyline, another old god–the fights are fun, and there’s definitely an epicness to the instance. However, slogging through there on 10- and 25-man really burnt me out. Without a companion instance (SSC had TK, Hyjal had BT, e.g.), Ulduar just got to be too much.
ZA was fun even if that damned dragonhawk boss was our bear mount cockblock.
I actually LOVE Obsidian Sanctum….know why?
Because Sartharion’s voice sounds AMAZING.
Oh man, I personally loved Kara too during BC. I never got to see much more other than stuff over the shoulder of my dad who was doing main healer and stuff for a t5/t6 geared guild at the time. BC raids rocked my socks to watch. When I finally got 70 on my main though, it was about a month before Wrath released, so I didn’t get much time to run around in that instance, but I’ve been trying to get that key so I could go in when I want. I loved how the trash could kill you so easily (WHO AGGRO’D? RUN AWAY GUYS.) and the demon behind the bookshelf, and the book with the worgen form, and those random trash that were banshees and succubi and stuff, and man, I hated the Prince guy. :[
For at level raids, definately Naxx because it was redone for a new generation (way too easy, might I add.) yet it was still troubling, and I loved finally seeing KT, and then finding out he needed a hug from that coin. I loved Mr. Bigglesworth too, everyone killing him makes me sad, but he pops up later, yay respawns. <3
I loved the worgen book. I made it a habit to try to ninja as many books as I could just so I could get the worgen buff for myself. I also youtubed up some voices from Kara, and Shade definitely tops the list. “Yes my son is quite powerful, but I HAVE POWERS OF MY OWN!” “YOU’LL SOON LEARN THAT THIS BEATEN DOG STILL HAS SOME TEETH!” Man…I’m never going to find people crazy enough to run it again 🙁
For me, I think it would be Mount Hyjal.
Not that I think it quite equals Kara in regards to design. Kara is exactly as you said it, intricately and beautifully designed.
But what I really enjoyed about Mount Hyjal was the epic nature of it all. That you get thrown in to be a part of this epic and massive battle against Archimonde and the Burning Legion.
And heck, when i did it, it was with a full group of 80’s and we still wiped on the fight once. 😛
I would say vanilla Naxx if it Blizzard didn’t go overboard with the level of difficulty. So it is Kara primarily because of the storyline, overall design and very well tuned encounters. Mount Hyjal is a distant third.
First:
The title of this post is pure win, the first picture; totally hilarious.
Favourite raid: Kara – we never got any further in TBC, and nothing in Wrath is close to Kara.
Favourite instance: TBC heroics! “We cannot do Shadow labs, we have no mage” – sounds familiar?
The days on challenging heroics are dearly missed – we were always short of CC (no mage and the hunters could not chain-trap to save their lives) and the tank was a Warrior – that is a fun combo.
How I cheered when my moonkin main was given CC in instances, how I cried when I realised the days of CC was over …
.. when did you last get CC assigned before a pull?
Oh man, the memories this post has brought back!! And Trazer, i agree completely, where have the class dynamics gone?? However, back on topic, kara has to be, hands down, the best raid so far in Wow. I will never forget walking up the stairs to the ballroom the first time, and backing into moroes dining room to give myself some nice range, lol! Whoops! But i agree with a number of posts here that oi think it wasn’t just the awesome design, but the music that made that place spook the crap outta me and make it come so alive 😀 Thanks for the memories pike 😀
The most beautiful, challenging and scary — Wailing Caverns without any high-level toons and with some brand new players instead. I do this instance on every character, even if it means sitting in trade/lfg for a day.
It’s abnormally huge. It is so boundless, that after third turn everybody just lose the track completely.
After first druid pulls it is scary. “Omg, they turned into snakes! HALP I can’t move what do they do to me!”
And it is so epic, with the escort quest to wake up the elf. With huge murloc as a final boss. I laughed so hard the first time 🙂
It’s Karazhan. I only cleared that place once, on my hunter, and that was post-3.0 nerf… but I miss that place. I’ve now done ToC25 more than Kara, and… I miss it. I miss a lot of stuff about BC, though – the only heroic I ever cleared was Mechanar. I miss that I never got the opportunity to do those heroics properly. I miss that I never saw The Eye or Black Temple. I miss the shattered sun daillies. I miss everything being new and exciting. I miss that one, 5 hour long Blackrock Depths run. I miss my first deadmines run. I miss back when I didn’t know what a rotation was. When I took the boat from Teldrassil to Auberdine to Menethil at level 4, and had to ask a level 18 (woh, level 18) how to get back. I miss my frantic corpse jumping, spending 3 hours getting from Netherstorm to Shadowmoon. I especially miss Asura and Elania – Asura, my first pet, a bear, and Elania, formerly Olm the Wise, who I camped for two days.
Most of all, though, I miss the days before my video card crashed halfway through a VoA25 run, back when I was capable of more than 6 FPS.
It’s still broken.
Kara is tops for me too! Back in the day, I got really excited for MC. I spent all my money on FR gear and was ready to rock! We go in and I was in awe at seeing 40 people all moving and working together in harmony… then after one successful run, our guild stopped going. It was a sad day. =(
Every time I see Lord One-Shot in TOC I picture him yelling out Malchezaar’s line. I miss Kara.
I think Kara might be one of my favorite raids ever since it was my first raid and where I really learned to be a good raider. There are other raids I love because of atmosphere or what-have you, but Kara has a special place in my memories.
The other raids I loved:
ZA – It was so hard and so rewarding, especially later on when we started doing bear runs.
Sunwell – Felt epic in every sense.
Ulduar – Particularly 10 man. I’m a bit burnt out on it now, but Hard Modes in Ulduar felt like accomplishments and it really felt like earning the gear that dropped. In contrast I’ve been unhappy replacing Ulduar gear with TOC gear since TOC feels like a complete pushover.
And as silly as it may sound, I love ZG. I never did it at level, but I just love the feel of the instance. I still really want the tiger mount. :3
Pike. My WOWOMFGAWESOME moment was the instant I started reading your blog. No joke. Your blog helps satisfy my WOW urges while away from my personal computer. I would like to say Thank you.
Karazhan. Without doubt. It was my first raid, even though I’ve played since October 2005 (<=total slowpoke), and I can remember how nervous I was when, just a few days after dinging 70, I got asked in guild chat if I wanted to fill in a dps spot. I got summoned in to Maiden, and my heart beat so fast. I was so scared of messing up, and everything went just perfect. I even got lucky and picked up Legacy on my very first run. Karazhan and its lovely music will forever be the epitome of raiding to me. ^^