My first glimpse of Black Temple
The first time I experienced Black Temple, I wasn't a raider; I was a tourist.
Surreality was still working on SSC and TK when the T6 attunements were patched out of the game. Many guilds at our level of progression leapt at the opportunity to skip ahead to Mount Hyjal and Black Temple, but our ragtag group of lore junkies and obsessive completionists was determined to see Lady Vashj and Lord Kael'thas defeated before retiring Tier 5. (Besides, I had read on the realm forum that 3/4 TK and 5/6 SSC translated from WoW into English as "we don't do anything hard," and I didn't want Surreality to be looked down upon as one of those guilds. The "months behind" badge, on the other hand, I wore with pride.)
Even with attunements lifted, Black Temple seemed a far distant goal. It loomed over us, both literally and figuratively: an inscrutable monolith, mysterious, seemingly impenetrable — wonderfully, awe-inspiringly epic. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a daily ritual, but I often found myself veering north and east from the Sanctum of the Stars, putting my one-woman crusade on behalf of the Netherwing off for just long enough to hover in the shadow of the former Temple of Karabor and dream of the day that I would slough the mud and muck of Serpentshrine Cavern off of my boots and ... crawl through the mud and the muck of Illidan's sewer.
In those days, Surreality had become something of a haven for the alts of hardcore raiders, who enjoyed our relaxed guild culture and often hung out with us outside of raid times. (Or at least, that's what I told myself. Maybe they saw it as the equivalent of reading to kindergartners: WoW volunteerism, as it were.)
One night, the most egregious among them — a Tier 6 shaman many of us regarded with something akin to hero worship — offered to take us on a guided tour of Black Temple, using his main guild's raid ID.
To this day, it remains some of the most fun I've ever had in-game.
First, there was the sheer awe-factor. I was in Black Temple! Me! Black Temple! Sure, it's old hat now ... but at the time, Black Temple was the domain of the elite. The <Fires of Heaven>'s and <Forgotten Heroes>'s of the world raided Black Temple — not me! And yet here I was, a fledgling warlock in Frozen Shadoweave and that slutty red dress from Magister's Terrace, towing my imp around like a teddy bear and gaping at the ghosts of vanquished trash mobs.
And then, there was the light-heartedness of it all. It was so. much. fun. to be running amock in the scariest zone in the game, pretending we were raid bosses and intrepid adventurers and erstwile heroes, telling each other that this is where Gurtogg Bloodboil will be and this is where we will save Akama — or die trying — and oooo, look, are those ghosts on the ceiling?
* * *
I've come a long way since then, obviously, but I was reminded of this experience yesterday when responding to Light's comments on a recent (and apparently controversial) blogpost.
"The thing I notice the most about WoW players is that they expect Blizzard to hand them everything in terms of how to make the game harder or more interesting," Light wrote.
I replied with the now-standard counterpoint: "The thing I notice about WoW players is that they expect Blizzard to take them on a guided tour of all the content in the game..."
... and yet, ironically, my first glimpse of what remains my favorite content was — quite literally — a guided tour!
Why then, as Juzaba asks, do I begrudge others that experience?
I don't.
What I regret about Blizzard's paradigm shift is the knowledge that I will never again feel the kind of awe I did upon entering Black Temple for the first time — or the third1, because when I returned as a bona fide raider (with a jagged shard of Kael'thas's soul tucked into the pocket of my robes to prove it!), it was just as epic. But if every challenge in the game has an easy-mode counterpart, then the truly "new" experiences will be few and far between and every hard-mode victory will feel at least a little hollow.
Surreality is currently working on the heroic Twin Valkyrs. It's a hard, fun fight. I'm enjoying myself, especially because I can feel us progressing. We're learning with each new attempt. I can't claim that every wipe is productive (some are just dumb), but most are. The fight hasn't clicked yet, but it will — and when it does, I know I'll be happy and exhilerated and relieved, all at once.
But, still, compared to my TBC experience ... I can't help but feel that this is methodone.
If the new model is working for you — if you find the easy-mode/hard-mode dichotomy a perfectly acceptable, even brilliant compromise — then I'm happy for you. Truly. I'm not asking Blizzard to re-tune the raid content to my specifications; I'm simply expressing regret and a vague sense of loss over the end of an era.
- Remind me to tell you about the second, some time. For now, suffice it to say that it involved two warlocks, a prowling cat druid and a very naughty game of dodgeball with two Eyes of Killrogg. ↩
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October 21st, 2009 - 12:53
Blast… for all the time I spent in BT I never looked up to notice ghosts on the ceiling…
October 21st, 2009 - 13:31
Teron Gorefiend’s room.
October 21st, 2009 - 13:45
I can understand that. That makes a lot more sense, honestly. And it also doesn’t sound like forum whining, which I suspect is the reason why the last post stirred up such a hornet’s nest.
Pandering to common terms and memes reduces all of us to a certain set of oldhat arguments that are more likely to cause trouble as to make much meaningful contribution (and clearly I’m guilty of this as well). It’s really hard to be insightful anymore under the tag of “Is Wow too easy?”
But I LOVED this story. And the perspective behind it. And I know what you mean a lot better now. So sorry for being so combative in last post’s comments! I’m with you on this one.
October 21st, 2009 - 14:21
I didn’t read it like that at all.
Your comment in particular gave me a lot to think about — and to clarify, which I hope I managed to do with this follow-up post. I definitely don’t want casuals to be shut out of raid content! If that’s the impression that I’m giving my readers, then I need to be much more careful about how I express myself in the future.
One of my guildmates pointed out recently that even if Wrath followed the /exact/ same model as TBC, the simple fact that we didn’t start months behind would make it feel less “epic.” “Do you think Black Temple was as exciting to those guilds that farmed it for six months — praying for that offhand warglaive while they waited for Sunwell — as it was to us?” he asked.
Probably not.
October 21st, 2009 - 14:38
Heh, also a good point. I hope that if they’re going to let us farm something for that long, it’ll be Icecrown and not Bosses-in-a-Box TotC. Ugh…
October 21st, 2009 - 14:44
I didn’t comment on your last post. I didn’t really know what I could say about it without coming across as a whiny toddler who wants candy… NOW! Which really isn’t how I see myself at all. But the more people complain about the “too easy” of Wrath and how EVERYONE now has access to raiding, the more miserable and tiny I feel about not being able to break into it at all…
When you explain your feelings this way it doesn’t make me feel like something someone scraped off the bottom of their shoe for working as hard as I have and still being unable to make myself into even a casual-type raider. Rerolling right as I hit 80 didn’t help the quest for raiderhood of course, but I’d never have managed it with the mage anyway as I didn’t enjoy playing her enough to grind the gear.
But this sentiment, I understand. My guild of wannabe raiders and I ventured into Kara last week. And I was BLOWN AWAY. I know it’s old news, not just last tier but last expansion… but I understood more what people mean when they say they want to SEE the content. Just getting in there and getting a whiff of that creepy old haunted house vibe the place has going has me itching for more. We did the first three bosses and have yet to go back, but I can guarantee you, we will…
Anyway, the nostalgia chord resonates. Sorry you’re feeling so frustrated!
Rhii´s last blog ..Tricks and Treats Achievement Guide
October 21st, 2009 - 17:18
Nostalgia is a valid emotion, and an understandable one. But it also tends to color the past with rose colored glasses. We had a raider in my guild who constantly yearned for a return to 40 man raids. Then he would complain about how it took 20 minutes to get the 25 man raids put together. Then some of our other old school raiders would point out that putting together BWL runs usually took three times that from first invite to first pull. Then, he’d remember it too, and shut up for a while.
I run a guild that does 25 mans, but my true pleasure from raiding is derived from my core 10 man group that I run on off days. It’s a little more intimate, in my opinion. Just me and 9 people that I love to run with. No neurotic holy paladins, or clueless gnomes in sight. It’s something that was gimped in BC, and non existant in Vanilla. But it’s something that Wrath embraced, and made rewarding.
We felt the same awe at the guilds that were riding around on their 310 drakes with their starcaller titles as you’ve described with the BT/SWP guilds of BC.
We came together late in T7 content. We never did get Sarth 3D down when it was the hardest fight in the game. It got placed on the backburner while we pushed into Ulduar. We were pretty much a nonentity, ranked in the mid 50s on the server. We were undergeared and inconsistant. But we hit Ulduar hard. My Ten man group even managed to clear all but three hard modes before 3.2 came down the pipes. Now well geared, we’ve managed to push hard in 3.2, and are currently the fifth ranked guild Alliance side.
Two weeks ago, we pulled Algalon for the first time. And It was EPIC! Watching the sigils on the door that we’ve been staring at for months light up, and open the way for us was a great experience. To use a phrase from one of your previous post… “OMG! LOREGASM!” And Algalon has a hell of an entrance. He also hits like a freight train, and we bled out our hour of attempts in probably the fastest hour of WoW I’ve ever experienced. Despite not downing him, we were renewed in our dedication to each other and our raid group.
The next week, we came back to ulduar, and went back to work on Algalon. With 15 minutes left on our hour, we managed to push him into phase two for the first time, but with a mage and a hunter already dead, we were in a tight race with the enrage timer. We hit the enrage, he went beserk and killed 6 raid member before he bagan casting Accend to the Heavens. Our disc priest healer managed to penance him the last 5k health before he got the cast off. Everything goes white, and when the glow subsides, there’s a now red Algalon standing next to the gift of the observer. The achievement flashes, and lore occurs. Vent and gchat exploded in cheers. Then in an almost anticlimactic fight, we roll into Yogg 1 light and steamroll him for our last achievement towards our rusted proto drakes. Giddy with excitement we drop a portable mailbox because we didn’t want to wait until we hearthed. Zoning out, we all mounted up and went for a 310% plus crusader speed flight, just taking in the sites of the game and chatting in vent. Aimlessly flying, you would guess where we ended up. Naxxramas. Back where we first began. “Months Behind” as it were, but no less epic, or meaningful to those of us who worked together to earn it.
When I read your waxing nostalgic posts, about your first forrays into T6 Content, or your first kills on the final bosses of BC, and I realize that that’s exactly what my group feels right now. Everything is epic for us. Except for the ToC regular farm runs, but we accept that as a necissary evil, akin to the horror stories of running Kara for badges while attempting sunwell that some of the older players tell me about.
The Renaissance Man´s last blog ..The Fundamentals of Tanking: Perception in Ulduar
October 22nd, 2009 - 02:58
Can’t wait to hear the story about the 2 warlocks and Eye of Kilrogg